The Education of Refugee Children

Refugee protection has a controversial role within the modern human rights system, as well as within education policy-making and national welfare system. The creation of an international system of refugees’ rights has lead to the emergence of normative incongruities and disparities in the enjoyments of fundamental rights. This study investigates the enactment of the right to education for refugee children within national policy discourses and practices, adopting a comparative European perspective. It analyses two different levels of the policy-making process related to the right to education for refugee children (international and national), and it is undertaken in two stages. The first stage includes critical discourse analysis of international human rights documents, and British and Italian education policies. The second stage involves semi-structured interviews with international and national policy makers. Although limited in scope, the study intends to highlight the ‘aporetic nature’ of human rights, and the gap between promise and performance in the enactment of the right to education for refugee children.