Access to education for children : a case study of urban refugee and asylum-seekers in Bangkok

Abstract

Urban refugees now make up almost half of the world’s total refugee population. Formal education for the children of refugee and asylum-seeker families might often be delayed due to their situation. Barriers can arise in any country but in Thailand barriers to accessing education also include the threat of arrest and detention. The purpose of this study is to determine the key factors that limit access to education for the children of urban asylum-seekers and refugees in Bangkok. The primary findings of the study are: (i) The majority of the school aged refugees and asylum-seekers studied do have access to education; but more than half receive education far below national standards. This can only be considered informal rather than formal schooling that would be recognized as fulfilling basic education requirements. (ii) The threat of arrest and detention resulting from illegal status does disrupt access to education creating a gap in consistency, but does not completely restrict access in the long term. (iii) The current strategy to enroll urban refugee and asylum-seeker children in Thai public schools appears to be the best option given the challenges of the situation, although language barriers are encountered which causes a further gap in education. The resulting gaps combined cause substantial disruption in the education of these children.