EXPERT Q&A

Drawing on her research with displaced communities, Michelle Bellino, associate professor of education at the University of Michigan, argues that universities should care about refugees, asylum-seekers and displaced communities as part of their mission to prepare students for a more just and egalitarian society.

Bellino urges institutions of higher education to join Welcome Corps on Campus, a new opportunity for U.S. universities to welcome, enroll and support refugee students.

As an education scholar, what challenges do refugee youth face in accessing education?

There are currently an estimated 117.3 million displaced people in the world, a number that is expected to continue to increase in the face of ongoing armed conflicts and environmental precarity. Approximately 40% of those displaced people are school-aged children and young people under age 18.

Refugees and other displaced populations face numerous barriers to accessing and completing formal education. Families forced to flee their countries of origin often end up in overcrowded, lower-quality schools, while also navigating an unfamiliar environment. Direct costs, like tuition, and indirect costs of schooling, like purchasing uniforms and books, may be prohibitively expensive. Refugees may be barred from entry due to discrimination based on their nationality and status. Or they may be permitted to enroll, but are subject to discriminatory treatment that prevents them from feeling safe and developing a sense of belonging, which are essential for learning.

Displacement disrupts a sense of place and time. Young people can find themselves out of school for decades as they wait for opportunities to join new school communities in countries where they are seeking asylum or hope for conditions to change so that they can return to their countries of origin. Displacement has become increasingly protracted so that a young person can be outside their country of origin for their entire schooling. Higher education is particularly out of reach for displaced populations.

The youth I’ve worked with have struggled to access secondary education and are often unable to pursue postsecondary opportunities, despite their academic success and perseverance. Limited opportunities and financial, bureaucratic and other obstacles, such as disrupted schooling and insufficient documentation of certification, can all impede forward movement in young people’s learning.

What is Welcome Corps on Campus?

Currently, only 7% of refugees access higher education globally. This number has increased in recent years from 1%, but we still have a ways to go. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the entity that leads refugees’ access to services, has set an ambitious goal for the global community to increase refugees’ access to higher education to 15% by 2030.

In July 2023, the U.S. Department of State launched Welcome Corps on Campus, a program that links higher education to resettlement through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, providing a path to legal status. University partners commit to supporting refugee students financially, logistically, academically and socially. The first cohort from Kenya and Jordan will join U.S. campuses this fall.

How do universities currently consider refugee students for admission and financial support?

Most U.S. institutions don’t distinguish displaced students from other applicants. Refugees are often classified as international students, facing challenges like establishing state residency, accessing necessary application tools, and navigating the visa process. Bureaucratic and financial barriers further disadvantage these students.

There is also a lack of clarity and transparency in many university materials, so that it is not clear to applicants, or even in some cases faculty and staff, how to support a student with a differential status. In reality, we don’t know a lot about how many refugees and displaced peoples actually access higher education. A recent study estimates that more than 54,000 refugee students are currently studying on U.S. campuses, and there are indicators that this may be a conservative number because there is so little data on these figures.

Why should universities join the Welcome Corps on Campus?

Higher education institutions have a moral and pedagogical obligation to respond to displacement. Universities aim to prepare students to engage with global issues, and displacement is an urgent, ongoing challenge. It is also a challenge that is felt in inequitable ways. For example, high-income countries are more responsible for geopolitical and climate-related drivers of forced movement, though the vast majority of displaced peoples seek asylum in low- and middle-income countries. Welcome Corps on Campus offers universities a chance to take an active role in making our world—particularly our education and resettlement systems—more equitable and just.

University campuses already have many of the supports that displaced students need to be embedded in their institutions and communities, so this program leverages existing resources and supports. This program can significantly impact refugees’ lives, with positive ripple effects in their communities of origin, asylum and resettlement. Meanwhile, sponsored students bring diverse linguistic, cultural and experiential assets that enrich campus communities.

What can colleges do to become more accessible to refugee students?

To be sure, increased access is not enough to facilitate inclusion and a sense of belonging. But access is an important place to start. Colleges can bridge educational access gaps by creating more inclusive policies, communicating them transparently, and recognizing transborder mobility and status as dimensions of diversity, equity and inclusion. By examining disparities in educational access, institutions can identify and address critical gaps in their policies and practices, making them more inclusive for diverse learners, to make campus communities more welcoming and sensitive to the experiences of displaced students like refugees.

How is the University of Michigan supporting refugee students?

In fall 2023, I founded the Coalition for Welcoming and Belonging at the University of Michigan. I now co-lead the coalition with Katie Lopez of the School of Social Work and Marcela Ortiz, a doctoral student at the Marsal Family School of Education. We are a community of faculty, staff and student leaders committed to making our campus a more welcoming and inclusive place for displaced learners and community members. We are raising awareness across campus about the circumstances and needs of displaced populations, as well as ways that our campus policies can better communicate, recognize and meet these needs. We hope U-M can join Welcome Corps on Campus and become one of the first universities to support more equitable educational opportunities for displaced young people.