Schooling and the settlement of refugee young people in Queensland: '... the challenges are massive'

This article reports on two phases of a larger research project on refugee education in Queensland. The first phase of the project investigated policy and provision relating to refugee education. The second phase of the research focused on how the complex educational needs of refugee young people were being addressed in state high schools in Brisbane. The article draws on interviews conducted with teachers and community workers working in schools with significant numbers of refugee young people. Problems with current policies and provision in refugee education experienced by teachers and community workers are outlined. Drawing on insights from recent UK research, the article suggests ways in which systems and schools could provide more effective support for refugee students in mainstream schools. It is argued that schools could play a crucial role in supporting transitions to belonging and citizenship for refugee young people, but that this will require more support from governments and systems in the form of appropriate policies and strategies, and the provision of adequate resources. Introduction In the last decade or so there has been a dramatic rise in the numbers of refugees and humanitarian entrants arriving in Australia from various countries in Africa. Refugees from this region have been described as having welfare and educational needs never before encountered in previous humanitarian flows to Australia. A discussion paper produced in late 2006 by an interdepartmental government committee on measures to improve settlement outcomes observed: The African caseload generally has greater settlement needs than people from previous source regions, reflecting their experiences and circumstances prior to arriving in Australia. Some of these pre-migration experiences include higher levels of poverty, larger families, lower levels of education and English proficiency, lower levels of literacy in their own languages, higher incidence of health issues, longer periods spent in refugee camps, little experience of urban environments, and higher rates of torture and trauma (DIMA 2006, 7). That new initiatives would be required to enable systems to respond to these greater settlement needs has also been noted: Education providers recognise there are unique challenges in providing the African refugee population with the skills they require to function successfully, and to their capacity, in Australian society. These challenges will require new responses from governments, as it becomes clear that the needs of this refugee cohort are quite different from previous immigration waves in Australia (Australian Council of TESOL Associations 2006, 7). This situation has posed new challenges 'on the ground' for education systems and teachers, and there is evidence that teachers often feel ill equipped and under resourced to meet the complex needs of the increased numbers of new arrivals (Cassity and Gow 2005; Miller et al. 2005; VFST 2007). Research on the experiences of newly arrived African young people in three schools in western Sydney found that, despite a few 'success stories', in general 'the schooling system was not working well for many recently arrived African young people' (Cassity and Gow 2005, 13). Cassity and Gow raised some important issues about the role of schooling in the settlement of refugee young people, and argued for 'integrated approaches to settlement which focus not only on transition to schools, but also consider the longer term participation of refugee young people in their new society' (2005, 13). They further highlighted the crucial role that schools could play in facilitating 'the transition from refugees to participating citizens' (2005, 13). This article reports on two phases of a larger research project which investigated refugee education in Queensland. The first phase of the project investigated policy and provision relating to refugee education in Australia. …