Chapter 21: Education, training and adult refugees in the UK and Australia.

AUSTRALIA; UNITED Kingdom

This article focuses on current policies and practices for education and training of adult refugees in Great Britain and Australia, with suggesting ways to improvements. Great Britain and Australia, reportedly, are two of the 134 nations to have ratified one or both of the United Nations Geneva Convention of 1951 and the subsequent protocol of 1967 relating to the status of refugees. It is estimated that the total population of refugees and asylum-seekers in Great Britain is somewhere between 220,000 and 300,000, while 580,000 humanitarian entrants have settled in Australia since the World War II. Asylum-seekers and refugees are highly vulnerable to economic and social exclusion, and participation in education and training can play a crucial role in helping refugees to rebuild their lives. Nevertheless, research indicates that there are fundamental barriers that are likely to impact upon most, if not all, adult refugees who seek to participate in education and training. Some of these problems are: physical and psychological problems; resettlement problems; sociocultural problems; and economic barriers. The various ways in which these barriers operate, and how they are currently being addressed, is presented and analyzed in this article.