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Second Generation Refugees in Europe: The Legacy of Refugee Background

This special issue explores the experiences and perspectives of both the Europe-born adult children of refugees and those who arrived in the country of residence at a young age. While the lives of those from the refugee generation have been well researched, little is known about their children and the complex ways in which their refugee backgrounds may shape their lives. Within academic research and scholarship, members of the second generation from refugee backgrounds are largely subsumed within the wider analysis of ethnic minorities or integrated into studies of second-generation migrants. Consequently, we know little about how the children of refugees fare within the broader analyses of ethnicity, nor what their social, economic, cultural and transnational lives are like. This special issue shows how policy, culture, class, gender and refugee background, including their parent’s histories, shape the lives of those of the second generation. The five contributions consider the classical foci of studies on integration: access to school and education, racialisation, transnational lives and political engagement. The collection of papers offers a unique insight into the different ways in which growing up within refugee families in Europe may impact on the second generation’s everyday lives.

Edited by: Milena Chimienti, Alice Bloch, Laurence Ossipow and Catherine Wihtol de Wenden

  1. This introduction to the special issue provides a critical state-of-the-art of the literature on second-generation migrants which has hitherto subsumed the case of the children of refugees. It highlights the t...

    Authors: Milena Chimienti, Alice Bloch, Laurence Ossipow and Catherine Wihtol de Wenden
    Citation: Comparative Migration Studies 2019 7:40
  2. This article explores the various types of racism and racialization comparing the experiences of descendants of Kurdish, Tamil, and Vietnamese refugees in Switzerland. Drawing on qualitative data from 45 inter...

    Authors: Laurence Ossipow, Anne-Laure Counilh and Milena Chimienti
    Citation: Comparative Migration Studies 2019 7:19
  3. Since the war in Syria started in 2011, many children left their war-torn country, alone or together with their families, and fled to neighboring countries in the Middle East, to Turkey or to Europe. This arti...

    Authors: Maurice Crul, Frans Lelie, Özge Biner, Nihad Bunar, Elif Keskiner, Ifigenia Kokkali, Jens Schneider and Maha Shuayb
    Citation: Comparative Migration Studies 2019 7:10