Education and xenophobia, a challenge for migrant children

The International plan of NGOs released a study this Monday that highlights the barriers and challenges faced by Venezuelan migrant and refugee children in South America in accessing equitable, inclusive and quality education services, a problem that equally affects host communities.

Report “Barriers to Access, Transition, Completion and Learning for Refugee and Migrant Children and Adolescents and the Host Community in the Region, Developed in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru” Plan together with Regional educational group (Grelac)showed that 35.9% of households consider it difficult to register underage migrants.

The survey conducted between August and November 2022 included adult caregivers of migrant children and adolescents from Venezuela and school-age host communities and educational authorities as the target population.

The study organizes the results by country and by moments of the educational path, ranging from enrollment Boys, girls and adolescents (NNA) to threats or obstacles that families feel they must overcome in order to complete the educational process.

The Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants (R4V)cited in the report, states that the three Latin American countries that accept the most Venezuelan migrant population are Colombia with 2.5 million, followed by Peru with 1.5 million and Ecuador with 502,200 migrants.

The research points out that of the total number of households that have difficulties, 79.5% belong to migrant households, who cite the documentation required by educational institutions as the main obstacle.

It was also revealed that 26.4% of surveyed households agree that it is difficult for their children to continue their education.

According to the Plan, this situation is caused by economic problems, difficulties in finding school places, obstacles related to immigration documents and lack of knowledge about local education systems.

“Countries must build crisis-resilient education systems and policies that are based on the experiences and solutions identified by displaced children and youth. These systems and policies must be adaptive, flexible and innovative and guarantee the protection of girls’ rights,” he said. director International Plan for the South American Subregion, Verónica Zambrano.

This will enable, Zambrano confirmed, “the offer of inclusive and quality education that will guarantee the continuity of education in the context of human mobility.”

For its part, the report indicates that in the case of migrant and refugee girls and adolescents, the gender-based violence they are exposed to also has a detrimental effect on their education, forcing them to drop out of school, miss classes or have low income.efficiency due to physical and emotional trauma. .

In terms of durability, it has to be 26.4% of surveyed families agree or completely agree that it is difficult to continue education in the country where they live.

Additionally, 6.6% believes that at least one child under their care is facing some kind of threat to complete their educational process.

In the case of girls, the report points out that teenage pregnancy and lack of funds are factors that force them to drop out.

Regarding educational exclusion, it was found to be present in all members of the educational community: 8.8% of families identified rejection by teachers, 4.3% from other members of the educational community and 15.1% claimed that these behaviors occur among NNA alone.

At this point, the study shows that the perceived gaps in access and sustainability of education allowed it to be determined that “the challenge that remains among the three countries despite the efforts of xenophobia (…) is a challenge that requires significant efforts to centralize and support international cooperation” .