Events

How do recent refugee communities partake in the educational choice debate in the United States?  What role does their racial, religious and class status-play in their interactions with these institutions? This presentation examines public education experiences in Minnesota from perspectives of Somali parents, recent public-school graduates as well as public school administrators. The preliminary findings question the role of public education in refugee and migrant integration. While refugee families relentlessly strive to get good educational opportunities for their children, they nevertheless become embedded in failing and segregated traditional public schools, or in alternative failing ethno-centric charter schools. This case study makes us question the school ‘choice’ rhetoric and how differently positioned groups might succeed to land on educational “islands of adequacy” while others are left behind in a “sea of disparities.”