Educational Needs and Barriers for African Refugee Students in Manitoba Yatta Kanu University of Manitoba This study investigated the educational needs and barriers for diverse African refugee  students in two inner‐city high schools in Manitoba. Forty African refugee students,  two principals, eight teachers, four parents, and four community leaders participated  in the study. Five focus groups, individual interviews, and school and classroom ob‐ servations were used to collect data. Results revealed that academic, economic, and  psychosocial challenges facing African refugee students adversely affected their abil‐ ity to integrate and cope well in school, thereby significantly reducing their socio‐ economic opportunities. Policy implications and urgent reform measures such as  forgiveness of refugee resettlement loans and better housing in safer neighbourhoods  are suggested.    Key words: War‐affected African refugee students educational needs, educational  barriers,refugee student support programs, social integration and educational suc‐ cess.  Dans cet article, l’auteure analyse les besoins en éducation et les difficultés des élèves réfugiés venant du continent africain et fréquentant deux écoles secondaires situées dans des quartiers pauvres au Manitoba. Quarante élèves africains, tous des réfugiés, deux directeurs d’école, huit enseignants, quatre parents et quatre leaders communau- taires ont participé à cette étude. Cinq groupes de discussion, des entrevues indivi- duelles et des séances d’observation dans l’école et en classe ont été utilisés pour ré- unir les données. Les résultats indiquent que les défis scolaires, économiques et psy- chosociaux auxquels font face ces jeunes africains réfugiés affectent leur aptitude à bien s’intégrer et s’adapter à l’école, ce qui a pour effet de réduire nettement leurs possibilités socioéconomiques. L’auteure suggère des changements au niveau des politiques ainsi que des mesures de réforme urgentes, telles l’exonération du rem- boursement des prêts consentis pour l’aide à l’établissement des réfugiés et l’amélioration des conditions de logement et ce, dans des quartiers plus sûrs. Mots clés : besoins en éducation des élèves réfugiés provenant de pays africains en guerre, obstacles à l’éducation, programmes d’assistance à l’intention des élèves réfu- giés, intégration sociale, réussite scolaire _____________________________ CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 31, 4 (2008): 915-940 916 YATTA KANU Globally, an unprecedented increase in the number of refugee students of African origins in major cities has occurred in countries around the world, especially such countries as the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia (Biles, Tolley, & Zamprelli, 2006). Research, however, indicates that this increase has generally not been accompanied by appropriate educational and other specialized support specifically targeted to assist the acculturation, integration, and school success of students who are from war-affected, disrupted schooling backgrounds and whose culture, ethnicity, language, and religion are significantly different from those of the mainstream in the host countries. Spora- dically available in some schools are generic refugee support programs that are uninformed by input from the refugees themselves or research on the effectiveness of these programs for particular groups of refugee students (author’s observation). This lack of informed and targeted edu- cational support, along with various forms of documented discrimina- tion against African refugee students in host countries (McBrien, 2005) may account for the dramatic school dropout rates and social alienation observed among this group, thereby significantly reducing the economic and social opportunities available to them in their new countries. This article identifies the educational needs of African refugee stu- dents, and recommends what policy-makers, schools, teachers, and other service providers could do to facilitate the acculturation, social integra- tion, and school success of African refugee students in their new count- ries. The focus and target population of the study is African refugee stu- dents in Manitoba, but globally the study’s findings have application in countries with similar groups of refugee students. RESEARCH PROBLEM AND STUDY RATIONALE Manitoba has seen a consistent growth trend since 1998 in both overall immigration and the number of refugee immigrants. Manitoba Labour and Immigration (2006) reported that approximately 8,190 refugees im- migrated to Manitoba between 1998 and 2005, with the school-aged population of refugee newcomers (0-24 years) constituting approxim- ately half this number. A noteworthy shift in refugee immigration over the past five years has been the decrease in European countries as source countries of refugees and the rapid increase in African and Middle East- ern countries as major sources (MacKay & Tavares, 2005). According to MacKay and Tavares’ study, 7 out of Manitoba’s top 10 refugee source countries over the past 5 years have been African countries, representing EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND BARRIERS 917 well over half the refugee population in Manitoba. That study also noted that the current composition of the refugee population in schools reflects the major source countries currently contributing to the refugee influx in Manitoba: Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Sierra Leone, and Somalia. Af- rican students, therefore, constitute the highest number of refugee stu- dents in Manitoba schools currently. They deserve research attention for three reasons: 1. their unique educational needs as adolescents and youth coming from war-affected and disrupted schooling backgrounds; 2. their unique difficulty with integration due to their phenotype, eth- nicity, and linguistic and religious backgrounds; and 3. the higher school dropout rate observed among them that may ac- count for the increase in anti-social behaviours such as criminal gang activity, prostitution, and drug use. (African Communities of Mani- toba, Inc. [ACOMI], 2006) Although all war-affected refugees have suffered multiple traumatic experiences, African refugee youth are more likely than other recent ref- ugee children and youth to be forced into becoming child soldiers with lingering memories of committing or incurring terrible atrocities, or to become sex slaves carrying the scars of their experiences. Because of their race, countries of origin, and lack of power base in Western countries, they are more likely to have spent longer periods of time, sometimes five to eight years, in refugee camps where they received extremely poor support and lived in conditions that contribute to significant and often chronic ailments. They are also more likely to have experienced extended periods of disrupted schooling. These experiences suggest that this group of students may experience greater difficulties adjusting to and integrating into a new society and may be slower in learning academic concepts, skills, and a new language (Prairie Centre of Excellence for Re- search on Immigration and Integration [PCEII] and Population Research Laboratory, 2001; MacKay &Tavares, 2005). In fact, research by Thomas and Collier (1997) suggests that students with low literacy, interrupted schooling, and traumatic experiences might be expected to take 10 years or more to catch up to average levels of cognitive and academic lang- uage. Historically, Eastern Europeans, fleeing persecution during the cold war, represented traditional refugees to Canada. They tended to be more culturally and ethnically similar to many in the host country and were generally well educated, with skills that their host country valued. Since 918 YATTA KANU the 1990s, however, most refugees fleeing from violence in Sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, and other Middle-Eastern countries are unlikely to have high levels of education or skills valued by host countries in the West. Furthermore, many recent refugees to Canada and other Western countries have two additional barriers to overcome: (a) Many are black Africans with diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds that are signifi- cantly different from those of the mainstream in the host countries (Cau- casian, middle-class, and of European ancestry) and are significantly less proficient in the mainstream languages of their host countries (English or French in Canada); and (b) many refugees from Africa and the Middle East are Moslems, a religious tradition that many in the West have come to fear and despise, associating it with violence and terrorism (Asali, 2003). Anecdotal reports in Canada and studies in the United States (e.g., McBrien, 2005) have uncovered discrimination against new refugees from members of the host culture because of the stigma of Islam, often made conspicuous by the wearing the hijab (the Moslem head scarf), fasting during the month of Ramadan, or finding secluded places for ritual prayers during the day. These war-affected refugee students lack appropriate and sufficient support programs targeted for them. Sporadically available in some Manitoba communities are generic refugee support programs to facilitate the integration of refugees, but which are uninformed by input from the refugees themselves or research on the effectiveness of these programs for specific groups of refugees (author’s observation). Lack of targeted and specialized refugee support programs can impede the ability of ref- ugee students to adjust quickly and to learn, a situation that may account for the higher dropout rate reported among African refugee students in Manitoba (African Communities of Manitoba, Inc (ACOMI) Report, 2006). This article reports on a year-long study (2006-2007) to examine the educational needs and barriers for African refugee students in Manitoba high schools. Educational needs were defined broadly, including aca- demic, social, psychological, linguistic, and economic, a list that is ap- propriate for exploratory research of this nature, intended to identify the complex and interrelated conditions that support or undermine African refugee students’ ability to succeed in school and participate fully and actively in Manitoba’s and Canada’s social, economic, cultural, and po- litical life. EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND BARRIERS 919 THEORETICAL AND ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORKS Acculturation theories of immigrant psychosocial well-being, adjust- ment, and integration; Brofenbrenner’s (2005) bio-ecological theory of human development; and Rutter’s (1999) theory of psychosocial resil- ience inform this study both theoretically and analytically. Berry, Poort- inga, Segall, and Dasen (2003) define acculturation as a change in an in- dividual or a culturally similar group that results from contact with a different culture; they make a distinction between psychological and so- ciological acculturation. At the psychological level, changes can occur in one’s sense of identity, values, and beliefs; people may experience accul- turation stress such as anxiety and depression as they try to adapt to a new culture. The sociology of immigration recognizes that outcomes for immigrant minorities (including refugee immigrants) are significantly influenced by what Portes and Rumbaut (1990) call a group’s mode of incorporation, that is, the context in which immigrants enter, plays a de- cisive role in their process of adaptation, regardless of the human capital the immigrants may possess. Thus immigrants who receive settlement assistance and are not subject to widespread discrimination are expected to experience a smoother process of social and psychological integration and faster economic progress. Portes and Zhou’s (1993) segmented assimilation theory posits three patterns of immigrant adaptation into a new society: (a) the straight line theory of upward mobility in which newcomers assimilate into the Caucasian, middle-class majority; (b) upward mobility and eth- nic solidarity found in successful ethnic enclaves that have established themselves through government and social policies; and (c) a third un- successful pattern consisting of a downward spiral resulting in assimila- tion into poverty, often in an inner city underclass. Portes and Zhou noted that refugees arriving since the 1980s are less likely to blend than their predecessors because of their racial and ethnic origins. Without sig- nificant social and economic support, recent refugee children and youth are especially vulnerable to this unsuccessful pattern of acculturation. Extending their earlier work, Portes and Rumbaut (2001) posited three contextual factors on which segmented assimilation patterns are de- pendent: (a) the pace at which children and parents acculturate, (b) cul- tural and economic barriers confronted by immigrant youth, and (c) re- sources (family and community) available to manage the barriers. Brofenbrenner’s (2005) bio-ecological theory of human development helps to better explicate the contextual factors articulated by Portes and 920 YATTA KANU Rumbaut (2001). Brofenbrenner’s (2005) theory states that human devel- opment is a consequence of an individual’s personal attributes (e.g., bio- logical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioural characteristics) and the environments or contexts in which an individual lives. Brofenbrenner characterizes the environment as a system of five nested structures oper- ating as systems both within themselves and in relation to each other: 1. The first and innermost structure is the individual (in this study, the African refugee student). 2. The second structure, labeled as the microsystem, is the immediate “proximal setting” with which the individual interacts directly (e.g., family, the school, teachers, friends, and objects/ symbols / processes of the home). 3. The third is the mesosystem consisting of the environment in which two or more microsystem settings interact (e.g., interactions and rela- tionships between the home and the school). 4. The fourth structure, the exosystem, influences an individual’s behav- iour and development yet is composed of contexts in which a devel- oping individual is not directly involved (e.g., policies of a school di- vision). 5. The fifth and outermost structure which is most removed from the individual is the macrosystem which is the level of cultural ideolo- gies, macro-institutions, laws, and public policies that impinge on the individual (e.g., policies from ministries of education, political or academic views on refugee integration). These five systems influence and shape an individual’s developmental process. Individuals, however, differ in their receptivity and response to specific environmental factors, owing to their unique characteristics and bio-psychological resources. Brofenbrenner, therefore, conceives of learn- ing and development as a complex reciprocal interaction between an active, bio-psychological individual and the immediate environment. Rutter (1999), drawing on Brofenbrenner’s earlier works for his re- search on children who escaped from their impoverished childhoods to develop accomplished and successful lives came to the conclusion that a key component of healthy development was the cultivation of psycho- social resilience which is a combination of two factors: personal re- sources and social resources. Personal resources include dispositions such as maturity, self-reliance, self-understanding, and the belief that it is possible to deal well with adversity and stressful situations and to shape one’s own life. Social resources, a measure of social integration, EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND BARRIERS 921 include good, confident social relationships with family and friends, and access to support networks. The factors described in these various frameworks ultimately affect refugee youth’s access to education and opportunity and were drawn upon to inform the research questions, data collection, analysis, and interpretation for this study. RESEARCH PROCEDURES Three specific research questions were investigated in this study: 1. What do African refugee students need to succeed in Manitoba schools? 2. What are the barriers to their school success? 3. What kinds of interventions are needed to overcome these barriers? The target group for this study was war-affected African refugee stu- dents in Winnipeg high schools, specifically refugee students from Ethi- opia, Sudan, Sierra Leone, and Somalia, selected not only because these are the source countries for a large proportion of Manitoba’s newcomer students of refugee origins but also because of the significance of the challenges they pose for educators, schools, and the Manitoba commun- ity. Students who had lived in Canada for five years or fewer were se- lected from two Winnipeg high schools identified as having the highest concentration (about 20 per cent of the total school population of about 1,200 for each school) of refugee students from Ethiopia, Sudan, Sierra Leone, or Somalia. Other research participants were the two principals of the schools, eight teachers (four from each school), eight refugee parents, and four community leaders from the targeted ethnic communities. Data Collection Focus groups, school and classroom observations, and individual inter- views were used to investigate the research questions. Focus groups. To obtain initial exploratory data on the views of the African refugee students regarding the three research questions, audio- taped, focus-group interviews were conducted in each of the schools among 20 randomly selected, war-affected, African refugee students from the targeted ethnic communities – a total of 40 students from grades 10-12, with ages ranging from 17 to 24 years. Each focus group constituted five students. The focus groups explored open-ended ques- 922 YATTA KANU tions on issues such as (a) the students’ pre-migration war experiences and trans-migration refugee camp experiences and any impact these experiences had on their learning and psychosocial adjustment, (b) post- migration experiences in Canada, (c) barriers to social integration and school success in Canada, and (d) interventions needed to help them integrate and succeed in school. School and classroom observations. To assess the school accultura- tion/acclimatization of the refugee students, extended school and class- room observations (12 weeks in each school) were carried out. The re- search team observed the same class for each teacher once a week for one hour. In each school, 10 randomly selected male and female refugee stu- dents from each of the four targeted ethnic groups were observed. The principal researcher collected field notes on classroom interactions be- tween these students and their teachers, the frequency and quality of class participation, participation in recreational and organized sports and voluntary activities, and interactions with peers and others in a variety of school settings. Opportunistic interviews (Johnson & Christensen, 2004) were conducted, where warranted, during the observations to throw light on anything emerging of importance to the study. Individual interviews. For fuller exploration and understanding of the data from the focus groups and the observations, and also to allow for the emergence of any additional relevant data, individual one-hour interviews were conducted with 10 students in each of the two schools (a total of 20 students). Individual interviews were also conducted with the two school principals, eight teachers, eight parents, and four community leaders; participants were selected on their willingness to participate. Principals’ interviews focused on policies and programs they had in place to meet the needs of war-affected, African, refugee students, per- ceptions of the effectiveness of these programs for meeting their needs, challenges and successes in meeting their needs, and additional pro- gramming needed. Teachers’ interviews explored similar questions but also included questions on teachers’ knowledge about the backgrounds of their African refugee students, teacher beliefs about the abilities, suc- cesses, or otherwise, of these students; and efforts teachers had made to adapt their curricula and teaching methods to this group of students. Parent interviews explored topics such as aspirations and expectations they have for their children’s education, support systems available to parents (family and community) for helping their children achieve these aspirations, challenges to parents’ own acculturation and integration, EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND BARRIERS 923 perceptions of their role as parents and of their involvement in their children’s education, and supports they needed for successful parenting in their new culture. Community leaders were interviewed about refu- gee youth support services available in their communities, initiatives undertaken to address youth challenges emerging in their ethnic com- munities, and support they needed to guide their youth in their new country. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim for analysis. Data Analysis Transcribed data were read several times, segmented into meaningful analytical units, and coded, using both a priori codes (previously devel- oped, based on the research questions and the theoretical and analytical frameworks described earlier), and inductive codes generated directly from examining the data. Categories and themes were then developed and analyzed. Research reports, based on the analyses and interpreta- tions of data, were prepared and returned to the research participants for “member checks” to establish credibility, reliability, and confirmability (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION The findings suggested that multiple, complex, and interrelated factors interact to pose challenges or barriers to successful schooling and social integration for war-affected African refugee students. These challenges were clustered into three themes or categories: academic challenges, economic challenges, and psychosocial challenges. Academic Challenges Students described the opportunity to live in peace in Canada and go to school as “unbelievable”; “like winning the lotto [lottery]”; and “a great blessing.” However, they also described this blessing as “mixed” be- cause of several factors that interacted to pose academic challenges for them. These factors included: 1. lack of academic support at home (e.g., “…there is no computer at our house”; “my father used to help me with schoolwork but he has moved to Calgary for his work.”); 2. separation from family (“my mother disappeared during the war; she used to provide the boundaries we needed”); 924 YATTA KANU 3. cultural dissonance, including academic culture dissonance (“aca- demic expectations here are different”); 4. acculturation stress; difficulty with academic skills (e.g., note-taking, studying, academic writing, critical thinking, literacy and numeracy, and organizational skills); 5. limited English language proficiency (“sometimes, I don’t understand what I am reading in the social studies textbook”); 6. academic gaps due to disrupted schooling (“we were in Conakry [a refugee camp in Africa] for five years and I was not going to a real school”); 7. fast-paced curriculum (“the teachers go too fast, we don’t under- stand”); 8. fear and distrust of authority figures like teachers (“so instead, I ask other African students for help”); 9. fear of speaking out in class (“because I do not have Canadian ac- cent”); and 10. grade placement based on age and English language assessment tests rather than academic ability. Among these factors, separation from family and grade placement were ranked highly on the students’ list of frustrations. Separation from family not only created acute loneliness for many of the students but also robbed them of the role models who had provided the example, stability, and structures needed to thrive academically. Several of the students re- ported living with single parents or on their own, having lost their par- ents and coming to Canada as “unaccompanied minors.” Others were living in reconstituted families consisting of friends they had made while in transition in refugee camps. Some students had hoped that the school would provide the boundaries and structures they lacked at home. That hope, however, quickly vanished when they found out that “Here [Can- ada] the school system is really slack [lax]; nobody asks or cares if you did not do your homework.”) Without the structures to which they were accustomed, many of the students reported becoming lost in the Cana- dian academic culture. Students also reported frustration with their school’s assessment and placement of refugee youth and called for better monitoring and prac- tices: When we fled from Ethiopia, we lived in Kenya for almost 10 years and I was going to school there. When we came here two years ago, they placed me in