A Brief Look at the Diverse Challenges Faced by Primary

Educators of Children Identified as

Refugees

Presented by Melissa Malcomson

Q1222086EDU8719

Where?

http://www.hreoc.gov.au/human_rights/immigration/idc2009_xmas_island.html

Outline of presentation

• Definition of refugee

• History of Refugees in Australia

• The Refugee Experience on Young Children and its Impacts on Education

• The Traumatic Events Characteristic of the Refugee Experience

• Useful Links to Resources and Professional Development for Educators to Create an Inclusive Classroom

Definition of a Refugee

“Refugees are people who have been forced to flee their homes by conflict or

persecution. They are unwilling or unable to avail themselves of the protection of their own government, and must seek

protection in another country”

http://www.unhcr.org/

History of Refugees in Australia

• 1839 – Lutherans – Hungry, Italy and Poland

• 1901 – Russian, Greek, Bulgarian, Armenian, Assyrian and Jewish

• World War II – Poland, Yugoslavia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia and Hungary

• 1970s - Asia, Uganda, Chile, Cyprus, East Timor, Vietnamese

• 1981 - Ethiopia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, East Timor, and Latin America

• 1991 – Yugoslavia, Soviet Union, East Timor, Lebanon, Sudan, Burma, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Cambodia

• Recent Years – Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Burma, Sri Lanka and Africa

What do you think a Refugee Child Experiences?

The Effects of the Refugee Experience on

Young Children• Anxiety, Fear and Depression

• Re-experiencing traumatic events (PTSD)

• Severed connections with people and loss of extended family support network (i.e. grief)

• Sudden changes in attachment figures and relationships

• Loss of sense of safety and consistency

• Impact of isolation and separation

• Self concept, confidence and trust in others issues

• Skewed perceptions of the world

• Shame and guilt

Impacts on Education

• Have no or minimal formal schooling in their first language

• Possess low levels of literacy in English

• May have lived in insecure societies where civil order and services have broken down

• Have experienced extreme violence

• May have spent long periods in refugee camps or first country of asylum with minimal or no education

• May be suffering the after effects of trauma, and in some cases, torture

• May be affected by the loss of family and be without parental support

• May have had disrupted schooling due to movement within and between countries so that literacy skills are not consolidated in any one language

• May have come from a language background where writing is a relatively new phenomenon

Effects of the Experience

Once in Australia, young refugees may experience recurring and intermittent symptoms of traumatization, which affect concentration and learning abilities and contribute to depression and language problems. Where these remain unrecognized and untreated, they are likely to impede school performance and negatively impact on identity, self-concept, and self-esteem. In the long term, this may contribute to young people leaving school at an early age, remaining in low-skill jobs and engaging with alternative, but often self-destructive means of feeling empowered, such as drug taking and offending behavior.

(Luntz, 1998)

The Traumatic Events

• Imprisonment & torture (due to false accusations etc.)

• Witnessing of death squads & mass genocide

• Forced participation of murder and rape (families, recruitment of child soldiers etc.)

• Disappearances of family and friends

• Forced marches over long distances

• Fear tactics, including rape and amputation, as methods of social conditioning

• Extreme deprivation including poverty, unsanitary conditions and lack of access to health care

The Traumatic Events

• Persistent and long term political repression, deprivation of human rights and harassment

• Removal of shelter, forced displacement from home

• Perilous flight or escape

• Separation from family members (particularly fathers)

• Refugee camp experiences including prolonged squalor, malnutrition, lack of protection

• Sexual assault within camps (camps do not equal safety)

• Deprivation of education, and for children, deprivation of the opportunity to play

Useful Resources

QLD www.qpastt.org.au

NSW www.startts.org.au

ACT www.companionhouse.org.au

VIC www.foundationhouse.org.au

SA www.sttars.org.au

WA www.asetts.org.au

NT www.melaleuca.org.au

Queensland Program of Assistance to Survivors of

Torture and Traumawww.qpastt.org.au

Training Page

Resource Page

Victorian Education Department

Victorian Education Department

Victorian Education Department

Victorian Education Department

South Australia

Thank You