“…the educational attainment of the children of immigrants is a key indicator of future assimilation…”
Dr.Renee Luthra
In the current world it is impossible to ignore the exponential growth in the number of displaced persons. According to UNHCR’s Global Appeal for 2018-2019, more than 600,000 people crossed from Myanmar to Bangladesh within a few weeks in 2017. This was the most rapid outflow since the 1990s. This number only adds onto an existing global population of displaced persons fleeing from Central African Republic, Congo, Iraq, the Syrian Arab Republic(Syria),South Sudan, Afghanistan among others places.
UNHCR reports that half of the 17.2 million refugees under its mandate are children. Of these, 3.5 million refugee children aged 5-17 did not have the chance to attend school in the last academic year. These statistics are concerning because their education would directly contribute to the peaceful and sustainable development of their countries of asylum and their own homes if they are able to return.
According to Dr. Renee’s article: Assimilation in a New Context, the educational attainment of the children of immigrants is a key indicator of future assimilation and sadly most research reports poor educational outcomes amongst immigrants and their children. As the international community rallies around the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), many of these goals including Goal 4: Education, will not be met by 2030 if forcibly displaced people and in particular children, are neglected.