Locked-down learning amid COVID-19: young refugees in Greece and their supporters co-navigating a new crisis

[en] Greece, and the hundreds of thousands of refugees currently trapped in the country, are no strangers to ‘crisis’. Financial collapse and migration mismanagement were already severely impacting newcomers’ ability to participate in education before COVID-19 lockdowns made the situation even more dire. Based on interviews from a study on young refugees’ (aged 15–25) engagement with education in Greece, this paper explores how exactly lockdowns impacted learning and compounded pre-existing issues. It details how crisis was felt at the micro level as lost and disrupted learning opportunities, and as uncertainty and immobility–demonstrating the social, material and affective impacts of crises in the everyday. The paper also shows how youth expressed their relational agency by navigating constraints with the support of peers, educators and non-governmental organisations, even as technological and family-related issues came into play and supporters (or ‘co-navigators’) faced their own bureaucratic and practical hurdles. It concludes by arguing for sustained financial and political support for refugee-serving organisations, alongside greater flexibility and accessibility in the public education system.

Disciplines :

Education & instruction

Author, co-author :

HUNT, Lucy ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Education and Social Work (DESW) > Teaching and Learning ; School of Education, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

External co-authors :

Language :

English

Title :

Locked-down learning amid COVID-19: young refugees in Greece and their supporters co-navigating a new crisis

Publication date :

18 December 2024

Journal title :

Critical Studies in Education

ISSN :

1750-8487

eISSN :

1750-8495

Publisher :

Routledge

Pages :

1-18

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17508487.2024.2442400

Funders :

UK Economic and Social Research Council

Available on ORBilu :

since 07 January 2025

Statistics

Number of views

41 (2 by Unilu)

Number of downloads

30 (0 by Unilu)

More statistics

Scopus citations^®

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

OpenCitations

OpenAlex citations

WoS citations^™

Bibliography

Akritidis, D., Zanis, P., Georgoulias, A. K., Papakosta, E., Tzoumaka, P., & Kelessi, A., (2021). Implications of COVID-19 restriction measures in urban air quality of Thessaloniki, Greece: A machine learning approach. Atmosphere, 12(11): article 1500.1500. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12111500
Amnesty International. (2020, July17). Greece: Organisations in Greece, local and international health bodies warn: ‘discrimination does not protect against COVID-19’. Amnesty International Public Statement EUR25/2776/2020, https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/EUR2527762020ENGLISH.pdf
Antentas, J. M., (2020). Notes on corona crisis and temporality. Dialectical Anthropology, 44(3), 315–318. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-020-09613-2
Baird, S., Alheiwidi, S., Dutton, R., Mitu, K., Oakley, E., Woldehanna, T., & Jones, N., (2020). Social isolation and disrupted privacy: Impacts of COVID-19 on adolescent girls in humanitarian contexts. Girlhood Studies, 13(3), 98–115. https://doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2020.130308
Boletsi, M., Houwen, J., & Minnaard, L., (2020). Introduction: From crisis to critique. In M., Boletsi, J., Houwen, & L., Minnaard (Eds.), Languages of resistance, transformation, and futurity in Mediterranean crisis-scapes (pp. 1–24). Palgrave Macmillan.
Cantat, C., (2016). Rethinking mobilities: Solidarity and migrant struggles beyond narratives of crisis. Intersections East European Journal of Society and Politics, 2(4), 11–32. https://doi.org/10.17356/ieejsp.v2i4.286
Carastathis, A., Spathopoulou, A., & Tsilimpounidi, M., (2018). Crisis, what crisis? Immigrants, refugees, and invisible struggles. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees, 34(1), 29–38. https://doi.org/10.7202/1050852ar
Caritas Hellas. (2021). Open letter: All children have the right to go to school. Do not take that away from them. https://caritas.gr/en/advocacy-en/open-letter-all-children-have-the-right-to/
Choose Love. (2021). Under pressure - How Greece is closing in on civil society organisations working with refugees. https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/27-02-2021-REPORT-Report-Civil-society-Greece-under-pressure.pdf
Christodoulou, Y., Papada, E., Papoutsi, A., & Vradis, A., (2016). Crisis or Zemblanity? Viewing the ‘Migration Crisis’ through a Greek lens. Mediterranean Politics, 21(2), 321–325. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2016.1145823
Cossé, E., (2020, June12). Greece again extends COVID-19 lockdown at refugee camps. Human rights watch dispatches. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/12/greece-again-extends-covid-19-lockdown-refugee-camps
Council of Europe (CoE). (2019). Key terms: Formal, non-formal and informal learning. Retrieved April15, 2019, fromhttps://www.coe.int/en/web/lang-migrants/formal-non-formal-and-informal-learning
Dahya, N., & Dryden Peterson, S., (2017). Tracing pathways to higher education for refugees: The role of virtual support networks and mobile phones for women in refugee camps. Comparative Education, 53(2), 284–301. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2016.1259877
Dalakoglou, D., & Agelopoulos, G., (Eds.). (2018). Critical times in Greece: Anthropological engagements with the crisis. Routledge.
Dånge, L., (2023). Taking control and reorienting future aspirations: How young refugees in Denmark navigate life between integration and repatriation. Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies, 49(3), 655–672. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2022.2077182
Daniel, M., Ottemöller, F. G., Katisi, M., Hollekim, R., & Tesfazghi, Z. Z., (2020). Intergenerational perspectives on refugee children and Youth’s adaptation to life in Norway. Population, Space and Place, 26(6), e 2321. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2321
Denov, M., & Bryan, C., (2012). Tactical maneuvering and calculated risks: Independent child migrants and the complex terrain of flight. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 136(136), 13–27. https://doi.org/10.1002/cad.20008
Devenney, K., (2020). Social work with unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people: Reframing social care professionals as ‘Co-navigators’. British Journal of Social Work, 50(3), 926–943. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcz071
Donnelly, R., & Patrinos, H. A., (2020, December8). Is the COVID-19 slide in education real?World bank blogs. https://blogs.worldbank.org/education/covid-19-slide-education-real
European Council on Refugees and Exiles. (2020). Greece: 10, 000 people prevented access, lockdown extended, recognition rate increases. September 4. https://ecre.org/greece-10000-people-prevented-access-lockdown-extended-recognition-rate-increases/
European Wergeland Centre. (2023). Faced COVID-19 as a school community. Retrieved February11, 2023, fromhttps://theewc.org/faced-covid-19-as-a-school-community/
Fischer, A., (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on refugee camps in Greece. In Faculty of Law Blogs. Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford. https://blogs.law.ox.ac.uk/centres-institutes/centre-criminology/blog/2021/01/impact-covid-19-refugee-camps-greece
Fouskas, T., Koulierakis, G., Mine, F.-M., Theofilopoulos, A., Konstantopoulou, S., Ortega de Mora, F., Georgiadis, D., & Pantazi, G., (2022). Racial and ethnic inequalities, health disparities and racism in times of COVID-19 pandemic populism in the EU: Unveiling anti-migrant attitudes, precarious living conditions and barriers to integration in Greece. Societies, 12(6), article 189. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc12060189
Giugliano, F., (2020, April10). Greece shows how to handle the crisis. Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-04-10/greece-handled-coronavirus-crisis-better-than-italy-and-spain
Gough, H. A., & Gough, K. V., (2019). Disrupted becomings: The role of smartphones in Syrian refugees’ physical and existential journeys. Geoforum, 105, 89–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2019.05.012
Human Rights Watch. (2021, July29). Greece: Stop denying refugee children an Education. https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/07/29/greece-stop-denying-refugee-children-education
Hunt, L., (2021). Bordered trajectories: The impact of institutional bordering practices on young refugees’ (re-)engagement with post-15 education in Greece. Social Sciences, 10(11), article 421. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10110421
Jordan, Z., & Brun, C., (2021). Vital conjunctures in compound crises: Conceptualising young People’s education trajectories in protracted displacement in Jordan and Lebanon. Social Sciences, 10(7), article 241. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10070241
Kohli, R. K. S., (2006). The sound of silence: Listening to what unaccompanied asylum-seeking children say and do not say. British Journal of Social Work, 36(5), 707–721. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bch305
Kondilis, E., Papamichail, D., McCann, S., Carruthers, E., Veizis, A., Orcutt, M., & Hargreaves, S., (2021). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on refugees and asylum seekers in Greece: A retrospective analysis of national surveillance data from 2020. EClinicalMedicinearticle 10095837, 100958. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.100958
Koselleck, R., (2002). The practice of conceptual history: Timing history, spacing concepts. Stanford University Press.
Lee, L. M., (2012). Youths navigating social networks and social support systems in settings of chronic crisis: The case of youth-headed households in Rwanda. African Journal of AIDS Research, 11(3), 165–175. https://doi.org/10.2989/16085906.2012.734976
Mandikiana, M. R. V., Awasthi, Y., & Dambudzo, I. I., (2021). COVID-19 and its effects on refugee, asylum seeker and migrant children aged 12–17 years at Tongogara refugee camp in Zimbabwe. PanAfrican Journal of Governance and Development (PJGD), 2(2), 170–205. https://doi.org/10.46404/panjogov.v2i2.3235
Marchi, M., Magarini, F. M., Chiarenza, A., Galeazzi, G. M., Paloma, V., Garrido, R., Ioannidi, E., Vassilikou, K., de Matos, M., Gaspar, T., Guedes, F., Botelho Primdahl, N. L., Skovdal, M., Murphy, R., Durbeej, N., Osman, F., Watters, C., van den Muijsenbergh, M., … Derluyn, I., (2022). Experience of discrimination during COVID-19 pandemic: The impact of public health measures and psychological distress among refugees and other migrants in Europe. BMC Public Health, 22: article 942.1. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13370-y
Mollerup, N. G., (2020). Perilous navigation: Knowledge making with and without digital practices during irregularized migration to öresund. Social Analysis, 64(3), 95–112. https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2020.640306
Moralli, M., & Allegrini, G., (2021). Crises redefined: Towards new spaces for social innovation in inner areas?European Societies, 23(sup1), S831–S843. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2020.1841263
Nunn, C., Gifford, S., McMichael, C., & Correa-Velez, I., (2017). Navigating precarious terrains: Reconceptualizing refugee-youth settlement. Refuge, 33(2), 45–55. https://doi.org/10.7202/1043062ar
Okello, O., Leomoi, O., Dagane, A., & Abdikadir, A., (2022). The impact of COVID-19 on education and youth well-being in the Dadaab Refugee Camps. Local engagement refugee research network (LERRN)Paper No. 18. https://carleton.ca/lerrn/wp-content/uploads/LERRN-Working-Paper-18-Dadaab-COVID-19-DRA.pdf
Ombudsman, G., (2021, March11). Educational integration of children living in facilities and RICs of the ministry of migration & asylum. [In Greek] https://www.synigoros.gr/resources/docs/20210420-porisma.pdf
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2018). Education for a bright future in Greece: Reviews of national policies for education. OECD. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-for-a-bright-future-in-greece_9789264298750-en
Owens, J., (2017, October31). Closure plans for notorious Greek camp spark hopes and fears. VOA news. https://www.voanews.com/a/closure-of-greek-camps/4093463.html
Oxfam. (2013). The true cost of austerity and inequality: Greece case study. https://www-cdn.oxfam.org/s3fs-public/file_attachments/cs-true-cost-austerity-inequality-greece-120913-en_0.pdf
Petropoulos, N., & Tsobanoglou, G. O., (Eds.). (2014). The debt crisis in the Eurozone: Social impacts. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Petsinis, V., (2021, April26). The bio-politics of lockdown in Greece. openDemocracy. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/bio-politics-lockdown-greece/
Refugee Support Aegean. (2021). Excluded and segregated: The vanishing education of refugee children in Greece. https://rsaegean.org/en/excluded-and-segregated-the-vanishing-education-of-refugee-children-in-greece/
Roitman, J., (2012). Crisis. Political concepts: A critical lexicon, 1. Retrieved March4, 2023, fromhttps://www.politicalconcepts.org/roitman-crisis/
Rosen, R., Chase, E., Crafter, S., Glockner, V., & Mitra, S., (2023). Crisis for whom? In Critical global perspectives on childhood, care and migration. UCL Press.
Seguin, T., (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on refugees: Focus on Ethiopia. IIEP-UNESCO news. https://education4resilience.iiep.unesco.org/en/news/2020-2020-11/impact-covid-19-refugees-focus-ethiopia
Sen, S., (2018). Preface. In M., Pace & S., Sen (Eds.), Syrian refugee children in the Middle East and Europe (pp. ix–xi). Routledge.
Simopoulos, G., & Alexandridis, A., (2019). Refugee education in Greece: Integration or segregation?Forced Migration Review, 60, 27–29. https://www.fmreview.org/education-displacement/simopoulos-alexandridis/
Skleparis, D., (2017). Refugee integration in Mainland Greece: Prospects and challenges. Policy brief 02. https://unescochair.yasar.edu.tr/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Dimitris_PB02March2018.pdf
Swartz, S., (2021). Navigational capacities for southern youth in adverse contexts. In S., Swartz, A., Cooper, C. M., Batan, & L. K., Causa (Eds.), The oxford handbook of global south youth studies (pp. 398–418). Oxford University Press.
Theirworld. (2020, April19). Schools shutdown adds to misery for children trapped in Greek Islands refugee camps. https://theirworld.org/news/coronavirus-shuts-education-for-refugee-children-greek-islands-moria-camp/
Tsavdaroglou, C., & Kaika, M., (2022). Refugees’ caring and commoning practices against marginalisation under COVID-19 in Greece. Geographical Research, 60(2), 232–240. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-5871.12522
UNICEF. (2019). Refugee and migrant children in Greece as of31October 2019https://uni.cf/2Sloe92
Vaiou, D., (2014). Is the crisis in Athens (also) gendered?: Facets of access and (In)visibility in everyday public spaces. City, 18(4–5), 533–537. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2014.939474
Vigh, H., (2006). Social death and violent life chances: Youth mobilization and social navigation in Bissau City. In C., Christiansen, M., Utas, & H. E., Vigh (Eds.), Navigating youth, generating adulthood: Social becoming in an African context (pp. 31–60). Nordic Africa Institute.
Vigh, H., (2009). Motion squared: A second look at the concept of social navigation. Anthropological Theory, 9(4), 419–438. https://doi.org/10.1177/1463499609356044
Vigh, H., (2010). Youth mobilisation as social navigation. Reflections on the concept of dubriagem. Cadernos de Estudos Africanos, (18/19), 18–19. 140–164. https://doi.org/10.4000/cea.110
Voicu, B., Peral, E. B., Rusu, H., Rosta, G., Comşa, M., Vasile, O. M., Coromina, L., & Tufis, C., (2020). COVID-19 and orientations towards solidarity: The cases of Spain, Hungary, and Romania. European Societies, 23(sup1), S887–S904. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2020.1852439
Vradis, A., (2014). Crisis-scapes suspended: Introduction. City, 18(4–5), 498–501. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2014.949095