Hope in sight … Organisational challenges and mental health opportunities for refugee children in school contexts after arriving in an initial reception centre.

INTRODUCTION: We describe how school education for refugee children is often interrupted for long periods due to threats and insecurity prior to fleeing, discontinuity and dangers during the exile journey and the inability to immediately realize the universal right to school education for refugee children upon arrival. METHODS: We provide an overview of policy-oriented literature on the organization of school education for refugee children. Between immediate integration into mainstream school education and completely segregated schooling, there is a broad spectrum of transitional, temporary, and parallel schooling options for refugee children. However, around half of refugee children worldwide do not have access to school education and those who finally start school, are confronted with language differences, stalled learning processes, psychological trauma, and vulnerability, either in themselves or in their parents. They also experience repeated school changes and can be victim of discrimination, and racism. We present our qualitative research method on the basis of interviews and drawing techniques for young children, investigating the meaning of school for refugee children, their parents, and teachers. RESULTS: In the results of this qualitative research, we describe how school education during the initial arrival period can restore a sense of normality and provide hope for the future. Refugee parents, children, and careers link school attendance with hope and agency, as well as with developing a future perspective and revivifying of resilience. DISCUSSION: We make it clear that the normalizing, hope-bringing and mental health-promoting aspects of any form of early preparatory schooling for refugee children are all too often being pushed into the background by the political conviction that direct integration in regular school classes is the only acceptable option, and by the educational science discussion about the most effective form of early schooling for these children (immediate entry into regular school classes or transitioning through temporary, preparatory school education in language and welcoming classes), a question that for several reasons has not yet been resolved and probably never can or will be.