The inclusion of refugees - considering policies, theories and actions

“

If refugees are unexpected and undesired arrivals, there is a risk that they will be regarded as grit in the smooth functioning of existing society, institutional arrangements and culture. Of course, we are not talking of the grit of resilience and coping strategies of refugees, and we are not talking of the grit that is increasingly identified as the key ingredient missing in the over-protected members of different generations, such as the Generation-Z following the Millennials. When refugees are considered the ‘surplus population’ to be disciplined into the host society, the risk is that well-meaning inclusion can result in the reverse and what has been termed ‘inclusive exclusion’ (Dobson, 2004). So, we give with one hand the discourse of humanity, peace and inclusion and with the other hand, competitive individualism is expressed in practice in schools and other institutions where refugees must compete for scarce resources and more easily experience failure and exclusion. There is in such a case a disjuncture between the language of inclusion, the policy, the rhetoric, the communication strategy (the so-called comms and the creation of the right narrative) and the practice, existential experience and short, medium and longer-term consequences of exclusion

”