scholarly journals A Descriptive Study of the Schooling and Higher Education Reforms in Response to the Refugees’ Influx into Greece

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ourania Tzoraki
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Migration Route ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Higher Education Reforms ◽  
Final Destination ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers

Since 2015, a large number of migrants (refugees and asylum seekers) from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa have arrived in Greece and continued their onward journey to western European countries where they settled. As various European Union (EU) countries have later blocked the flow of migrants from Greece to their final destination, thousands of them have been trapped in Greece, confined in overcrowded, temporary camps (known as “hot spots”) and awaiting the processing of their asylum application. The current article examines the response of the Greek educational institutes (primary, secondary and tertiary levels) to the recent migrant influx, with ultimate goals to integrate, educate, and assist them. The number of refugees and asylum seekers living in Greece is estimated to be 58,000 (2018 data) with 22,500 children among them. Their schooling inclusion follows the plan 111, “Refugee Education Host Structures (REHSs)”, as initiated by the Greek Ministry of Education in 2017. Students’ leakage range is still high (10–40% at elementary school and 45–56% at high School). The disruption in their life results in the lack of regular attendance. Greek universities responded to the challenge of the refugee influx, especially the University of the Aegean (UAeg), which is located on the eastern Mediterranean migration route. The UAeg’s response plan focuses on four areas: (a) to provide education to refugees; (b) to conduct research on the refugee phenomenon and migration processes; (c) to increase local citizens’ awareness and improve social inclusion toward the migrants; and (d) to develop technologies to improve daily life in the refugee camps. These actions are significant toward the social inclusion and cohesion of refugees and the further improvement of their daily life.

Manifestation and symptomatology of depression in refugees and asylum seekers

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 2138-2138
Author(s):  
M.C. Kastrup
Keyword(s):  
Host Country ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Depressive Illness ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Specific Factors ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Depressive Syndromes ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers ◽  
The Impact

WHO has predicted that in 2020 depression will be the second most important cause of disability.Studies focusing on cross- cultural aspects of depression have increased during the last decade, and depression has been studied cross-culturally regarding their prevalence and symptomatology.The WHO study assessing depression across cultures reported a core symptomatology across the participating centres, but with certain differences in the ranking of problems in e.g. patients from non -industrialised nations somatic symptoms often dominate.Furthermore, there is increasing focus on the impact of migration on depressive illness. Depressive syndromes are clearly very common in migrants, and are probably the most frequent mental disorders in people who move to other countries. Refugees and asylum seekers are subjected to significant social and psychological stress and are more vulnerable. For scientific purposes it is vital though to differentiate between the different aspects of influence, for example the frequency of disorders and problems in treatment. Results of studies on increased psychological morbidity in migrants do not indicate whether increased vulnerability is associated with a migration background, or with acculturation problems in the host country due to cultural differences, or a combination of both factors. Both culture and migration-specific factors, as well as the level of integration into the host country, determine the conflicting arguments.The presentation will provide an overview of the burden of depression in relation to culture, differences in symptomatology, the role of migration and other circumstantial factors having an impact on the appearance and outcome of the disorder.

Enhancing food-related agency in refugees and asylum seekers: A driver to resilience and regenerative empowerment

2021 ◽  
pp. 89-104
Author(s):  
Maria Giovanna Onorati
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Participatory Approach ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
Research Action ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers

The paper argues the importance of food in the contexts of "forced migration" and the promising impact of enhancing food-related capabilities on refugees' em-powerment and social inclusion. To support the argument, the Author presents a pilot project based on research-action and providing food training for 39 refugees hosted in Piedmont. The research findings show that a participatory approach to training that values prior culinary learning, and the use of narrative interviews elic-iting food stories, may favour empowerment and social inclusion. Recovering food-related agency within refugees' unfinished journeys contributes to an em-powerment going beyond a sedentarist model of integration, namely a one-way and singularly place-bound demand of adaptation. Food agency is a basic enti-tlement that proves to be a major source of well-being for forced migrants, as well as a regenerative occasion for both healing ‘refugee gaps', and providing a more sustainable approach to resources.

scholarly journals ‘They Won't Let us Come, They Won't Let us Stay, They Won't Let us Leave’. Liminality in the Aegean Borderscape: The Case of Irregular Migrants, Volunteers and Locals on Lesvos

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioanna Tsoni
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Aegean Sea ◽  
Migration Route ◽  
Irregular Migrants ◽  
European Crisis ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Social Marginality ◽  
Transitional Phase

This paper draws on ethnographic observations along the south-eastern Mediterranean informal migration route through the Aegean Sea. I focus on the Greek border island of Lesvos as the central stage where the European crisis of asylum has been recently unfolding. In the absence of coherent national and European asylum policies, newly arrived migrants, refugees, and receiving communities (comprised mainly of local residents and volunteers from mainland Greece and Europe) are left to cope with and against each other, leading to multiple personal and collective passages. In this interstitial transit space, subjectivities are made and remade through their participation and resistance to the ongoing production of EU borders. I suggest that liminality provides a useful lens through which to understand the perplexing ‘time-spaces’ and interactions between multiple actors involved in the teetering asylum system on the margins of Europe. I argue that, through various actors’ experiences on Lesvos as a complex social site, liminality emerges as a form of sustained social marginality and exclusion that extends beyond Lesvos itself. The protracted and broadened crisis context in which asylum-seekers and receiving communities of locals and volunteers on Lesvos find themselves provides a salient example of the gradual socio-spatial and temporal ‘stretching’ of liminality from a transitional phase towards a condition of permanent and portable liminality experienced at both the individual and the collective level, and both at and away from borders.

Home journeys: Im/mobilities in young refugee and asylum-seeking women’s negotiations of home

Childhood ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ala Sirriyeh
Keyword(s):  
Young Women ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Life Stages ◽  
Migration Research ◽  
Research With Children ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers ◽  
Insight Into

Research with refugees and asylum seekers tends to be divided into research with adults or research with children under the age of 18. This is despite relational approaches to studying age that contest such dichotomous and fixed understandings of ‘life-stages’. This article seeks to provide an insight into the experiences of young women who in legal, policy and migration research terms are placed along the borders of this category divide. The article explores the experiences of young (16- to 25-year-old) refugee and asylum-seeking women in the UK and examines the role of im/mobility in their negotiations of home.

scholarly journals Forced Migration, Social Exclusion and Poverty: Introduction

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham R. Davidson ◽  
Stuart C. Carr
Keyword(s):  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Relative Poverty ◽  
Negative Experiences ◽  
Research Initiative ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers

AbstractThis special issue of the journal, which is part of a global research initiative on psychology and poverty reduction, focuses specifically on the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers. Application of contemporary constructions of relative poverty and social exclusion to understanding asylum and humanitarian refuge emphasises the relative financial and social disadvantages experienced by many of these forced migrants, which may lead subsequently to them having negative experiences of resettlement and poor mental health and overall wellbeing. We argue that governments need to be cognisant of the poverty pitfalls of forced migration and to examine carefully their policies on social inclusion to ensure that current and future humanitarian and climate change refugees arriving on their shores are not forced into relative poverty.

Migration Flows and Migration Crisis in Southern Europe

2018 ◽  
pp. 602-618
Author(s):  
Domenico Maddaloni ◽  
Grazia Moffa
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Southern Europe ◽  
Neoliberal Globalization ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Migration Flows ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers ◽  
Southern European Countries

This chapter examines the main migration flows concerning the countries of southern Europe; those are a) the immigration from developed countries b) the so-called ‘new emigration’, and c) the persistent flow of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. They receive a very different treatment in local political debates, which are dominated by the concern for ‘the crisis,’ (i. e., the whole range of economic, social, and political changes arising from neoliberal globalization). While discussing the current literature on these topics, the chapter shows how these flows are politically constructed for the purposes of the establishment. At the same time, the chapter highlights the relationships between these trends and the general changes affecting southern European countries.

Overcoming the deficiency of refugee mental health research

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Kalfic ◽  
Glenn Mitchell ◽  
Lezanne Ooi ◽  
Sibylle Schwab ◽  
Natalie Matosin
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Scientific Discovery ◽  
Mental Health Research ◽  
Psychiatric Research ◽  
Risk And Resilience ◽  
Refugee Mental Health ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers

The growing number of refugees and asylum seekers are one of the most significant global challenges of this generation. We are currently witnessing the highest level of displacement in history, with over 65 million displaced people in the world. Refugees and asylum seekers are at higher risk to develop mental illness due to their trauma and chronic stress exposures, and particularly post-migration stressors. Yet global and Australian psychiatric research in this area is greatly lacking, particularly with respect to our understanding of the molecular underpinnings of risk and resilience to mental illness in traumatised populations. In this Viewpoint, we explore the reasons behind the lack of refugee mental health research and use this context to propose new ways forward. We believe that scientific discovery performed with a multidisciplinary approach will provide the broad evidence-base required to improve refugee mental health. This will also allow us to work towards the removal of damaging policies that prolong and potentiate mental health deterioration among refugees and asylum seekers, which impacts not only on the individuals but also host countries’ social, economic and healthcare systems.

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