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• Agenda (ENG) (FR)
• Speakers' Bios 
• Logistical information for participants
• Background document for the Keynote Speech (ENG) (FR)
• Contribution from Stéphane Périchon (ENG) (FR)
• Forum Proceedings (ENG) (FR)

Background

 

According to UNICEF, roughly 31 million children were living outside their country of birth in 2015, and among these children, around 10 million are refugees. Global migration  is expected to increase, holding important implications for the education sector. Integrating immigrant and refugee children into schools is essential for the future prosperity of both migrant and native populations because diversity in education promotes skills development, individual well-being and social cohesion. In remote regions, education systems face particular challenges integrating immigrant and refugee students.

Waves of migration into, within or out of a region can create fluctuating demands for service provisions and resources in remote regions. This presents considerable challenges for the education sector in remote areas because schools and multiple stakeholders (principals, teachers, local government, NGOs, etc.) must find ways to prepare and adapt to population changes despite, in many cases, fewer resources, capacity and support from the centre.

Creating an effective model of governance with appropriate tools for migrant integration in education systems is critical to help solve common challenges identified at the local, regional and national level. Governance should not only include vertical policy coordination within the education sector (e.g. between ministries, educational authorities, municipalities, schools) for enhanced implementation, but also across horizontal sectors that immigrant and refugee students depend on, such as public health and housing. It is important that the diverse migrant populations as well as the economic, social and geographic characteristics of a remote region are taken into account in order to enable the successful integration of immigrant and refugee students in schools.

To ensure smooth transitions into their new communities and schools, other governance mechanisms in addition to policy coordination are required to overcome challenges in migrant integration such as capacity gaps among service providers, difficulties in strategic planning and a lack of multi-level accountability. It is thus important that governance mechanisms enable the provision of adequate funding for education integration, capacity building among public service providers and open-dialogue among stakeholders.

Important lessons can be learned from other sectors with experience responding to rapidly changing demands for services, the concentration of population and fluctuations in crises and risk. Sectors such as water governance, health, development (especially in crisis-ridden and fragile states) and risk management, which create strategies that capitalise on available resources and redistribute risk and demand for services, can help inform new and improved education policies and tools to ensure the successful integration of immigrant and refugee students in remote regions.

 

The objectives will be to

• identify common challenges for the integration of immigrant and refugee students in remote regions;
• examine promising practices and innovative approaches used by countries, regions, cities and schools to promote the effective governance of educational integration of immigrant and refugee students;
• facilitate peer-learning between countries, regions, cities and schools in the area of governance of educational integration in a regional context, focusing on co-ordination within the education sector as well as across other sectors; and
• discuss policy learning from sectors beyond education, particularly in the areas of crisis, risk and inflow/outflow management, decentralisation, and local and regional development.. 

   

Keynote Speakers

• Professor Vincente Manuel Zapata Hernández, University of La Laguna, Tenerife

Presentations

 Keynote presentation

• Inclusive education with a community approach: a formula to strengthen coexistence in contexts of significant cultural diversity (Professor Vincente Manuel Zapata Hernández, University La Laguna, Tenerife)

Strength through Diversity project presentation

• The Integration of Migrants and Refugees in Education and Training Systems (Francesca Borgonovi, OECD)
  

Presentations from the hosts

• Policies and programmes in the Canary Islands (David Pérez-Dionis Chinea, Government of the Canary  Islands)
• Spanish as a Bridge (Albano de Alonso Paz and María del Cristo Rodriguez Gómez)

Session 1: Migration, education and remote regions

• Migration and Education: a regional perspective (Paolo Veneri, OECD/CFE)
• The effect of immigrant children on academic achievement in the EU (Jacopo Mazza, JRC)

Session 2: Migration: from challenge to educational opportunity

• Integration of Migrants at the Local Level: Coordination and common challenges (Thomas Liebig, OECD/ELS)
• Local-Level Migration and Integration (Claire Charbit and Anna Piccinni, OECD/CFE)
• Alice in Wonderland (Carmen Artiles Moraleda and Raquel Henriquez Alvarez)

Session 3: Policy learning from other sectors for education and co-ordination in remote regions

• Large-Scale Flows in Water Governance: Mechanisms, strategies and methods (Håkan Tropp, OECD/CFE)
• Risk Management: Important strategies and approaches (Teresa Deubelli, OECD/GOV)
• Good Practices for Managing Crisis in the Nuclear Energy Sector (Olvido Guzman, OECD/NEA)
• Policy Learning from the Health Sector: Preparing for and managing diseases (Michele Cecchini, OECD/ELS)
• Migrate to Library (Dolores Léon Donate, Biblioteca Municipal Arucas)

 

Session 4: Reflections on school visits 

Session 5: What next for immigrant and refugee educational inclusion in remote regions?

• The governance of integration of immigrant and refugee students in remote regions (Begoña Lopez Cuesta, TUAC)
• International Cooperation: Improving the Future (Iliane González Martin and Clara Isabel Ramirez Trujillo)
• Recent Findings and Reflections on Quality Education in Remote Regions, (Luka Boeskens and Thomas Radinger, OECD/EDU)