THE ROLE OF SCHOOLS IN SHAPING THE SETTLEMENT EXPERIENCES OF NEWCOMER IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE YOUTH

Abstract

This paper draws on focus groups and interviews with newcomer immigrant and refugee youth between the ages of 16 and 22 to consider how schools shape their settlement processes and their sense of social inclusion and belonging. In particular, the paper focuses on newcomer youth’s perspectives and experiences of schooling in a medium-sized immigrant-receiving city in Canada. Analysis reveals that schools function as sites of both inclusion and exclusion in ways that produce ambivalence in immigrant and refugee youth with respect to their sense of social inclusion and belonging to community life. One recommendation emerging from the analysis is that educational practitioners and other community stakeholders interested in supporting the social inclusion of newcomer youth should develop and implement ESL and ELD programs and ensure adequate funding of these essential programs. There is also a need for collaborative, dialogical practices that provide all relevant stakeholders, including newcomer youth themselves, opportunities to come together to create new possibilities for understanding and cooperative action.

Keywords

• newcomer immigrant and refugee youth
• schools
• settlement
• social inclusion and exclusion