Revisiting the Issues of Access to Higher Education and Social Stratification through the Case of Refugees: A Comparative Study of Spaces of Opportunity for Refugee Students in Germany and England

Marie-Agnès Détourbe and Gaële Goastellec
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Marie-Agnès Détourbe: INSA Toulouse, Centre des Sciences Humaines, 135 Avenue de Rangueil, 31077 Toulouse, France
Gaële Goastellec: LACCUS, OSPS, LIVES, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

Social Sciences, 2018, vol. 7, issue 10, 1-20

Abstract: This paper presents new insights into the relationship between inequality in access to higher education and social stratification through the analytical lens of refugees’ access to high participation systems of higher education (HPS). Taking stock of the growing numbers of refugees and their increasing—yet still marginal—demand for accessing higher education, the paper analyses the specific statuses and rights they are granted, and how they combine in two European Higher Education Area HPS, England and Germany. The comparative analysis draws on the desk-based study of immigration and access to higher education policies and mechanisms for refugees in the two countries. The concept of assemblage is called upon to highlight how complex combinations of asylum, welfare and access to higher education policies lead to differential rights which create different spaces of opportunity for refugees with higher education aspirations. More generally, analysing how these rights intersect allows for a better understanding of inequalities in access to higher education.

Keywords: access to higher education; asylum; higher education; high participation systems; social inequality; social stratification; refugee (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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