Arrival infrastructures and refugee enrolment in higher education

Ids Baalbergen*, Gideon Bolt, Yanliu Lin, Pieter Hooimeijer

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Refugees enrolling in host country higher education can improve their position in the labour market. However, little is known about the patterns underlying enrolment, and existing studies have only examined explanations at the individual level. This is problematic because opportunities to enrol in education are also dependent upon structural factors, and by ignoring this, studies run the risk of depicting non-enrolment as a consequence of individual shortcomings. We address this issue through the notion of arrival infrastructures and argue that existing infrastructures at multiple spatial scales may support or discourage enrolment. By focusing on the Netherlands, we were able to follow the enrolment of all registered refugees that arrived between 2014 and 2017 over time using registry data. We find that the accessibility of education, the municipal political climate and regional economic conditions influence educational enrolment. These findings show that dispersal policies can have detrimental effects on the social mobility of refugees.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere13374
JournalInternational Migration
Volume63
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s). International Migration published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Organization for Migration.

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