Refugees a Challenge for Adult Education

January 2017

DVV International published the new IPE with a focus

On perspectives and challenges which arise for adult education from flight and expulsion and what contribution adult education can make toward better life perspectives of refugees and the integration of refugees. The IPE publication also includes an article on Afghanistan-Perspectives for better life – Perspectives to stay

Volume 76 of the series International Perspectives in Adult Education (IPE) of DVV International is published and discusses, from a national and international perspective, the challenges which arise for adult education from flight and expulsion and what contribution it can make toward the integration of refugees.

The flight and expulsion of masses of people is a major challenge for the societies that take these people in. Adult education therefore has a lot demanded of it. Germany is faced with a task of historic proportions: Hundreds of thousands of refugees have to be cared for, they need housing, money, work, and have to learn the language in order to be able to integrate into the new environment in which they live and work. The German VHS (adult education centres) – which are now one of the largest providers of integration courses – have been called upon in particular.

In the international arena, DVV International, among other things, has been active for several years in countries that take in Syrian refugees and, like the VHS, is dedicated to the task of providing further education for refugees and supporting their integration. So, for example in Jordan and Turkey, the institute supports partner institutions in the implementation of educational programmes for young people and adults, with a focus on three main themes: psychosocial support, conflict prevention and vocational training.

IPE 76 shines a spotlight on the national and international educational work of the VHS and of DVV International in the context of flight and expulsion. The volume covers particular aspects such as initial orientation, language support for refugees as well as further training opportunities for members of the host society, e.g. intercultural competence, and discusses these aspects through the presentation of concrete national and international examples from youth and adult education. The experiences gained in this process provide stimuli for both national and international adult education. The German VHS can benefit from the international work of DVV International and vice versa.

The online version can be found on our website under recent documents the IPE 76