Education as a key to integration: How refugee children fight in Germany

Education as a key to integration: How refugee children fight in Germany

In Germany, school attendance is often viewed as the gold standard for the integration of refugee children. Current research work, in particular a study by Prof. Dr. Céline Teney from the Free University of Berlin shed light on the challenges faced by Ukrainian parents during and after the Russian invasion. This study, published in the journal “Population, Place & Space”, was carried out in-depth between 2022 and 2024 and found that the choice between face-to-face teaching and native language online teaching is crucial for the integration of these children. During the first interviews in 2022, many parents believed that the crisis would end soon, which encouraged the decision to double schooling. However, this decision declined sharply over time, as many parents relied on education in the target country in 2023 and 2024. fu-berlin.de reported that an estimated one-third of parents surveyed returned to Ukraine between rounds of interviews.

The study also identifies a phenomenon of “transnational opportunity structure” enabled by digitalization. This allows refugee families to shape their quality of life largely outside national borders. However, these families face significant concerns, particularly about language barriers and their children's learning success. A 17-year-old student from Mariupol expresses serious concerns about her grades and future prospects. These concerns are shared by many parents who wonder how their children can integrate in Germany in the long term if they cannot speak idiomatically in their native language. Skepticism about welcome classes that prepare for mainstream classes is growing as many families consider returning to Ukraine.

Challenges in the German school system

The inclusion of refugee and newly immigrated children in the German education system is proving to be problematic. A report from bpb.de highlights that access to school depends heavily on the status as an asylum seeker, which can lead to waiting times of up to six months. In some federal states, compulsory schooling only begins with the application for asylum, which means that refugee children are often taught in refugee accommodation and do not enjoy the same educational opportunities as local students. The separation between regular and preparatory classes contributes to discrimination and makes starting school more difficult for many.

Teachers are faced with the challenge of recognizing the resilience of young refugees as a resource for coping with everyday life, while at the same time discriminatory conditions promote exclusion. The current, often deficit-oriented view of refugee students and the focus on potential trauma limit the perception of these children as active and competent learners. Support approaches such as translanguaging could contribute to inclusion by recognizing the multilingualism of these students report the experts from bpb.

The perspective of the education experts

Andreas Schleicher, director of education at the OECD and developer of the PISA test, has denounced situational equal opportunities in German education as problematic. As the developer of the PISA test, which is carried out every three years, he found that around one in five 15-year-olds in Germany do not even reach primary school level in the areas of reading, mathematics and science swr.de. This points to the fundamental challenges that the German school system must overcome in order to achieve educational goals and promote the inclusion of refugee students.

In summary, the integration of refugee children into the German education system depends on numerous factors, including school models, language support and parental support. A comprehensive redesign of educational approaches could help not only better take the specific needs of refugee students into account, but also enable true inclusion.