The need for evidence-based strategies to navigate the changed linguistic landscapes in education

In today’s society, increased mobility has blurred previously existing linguistic and cultural borders, particularly in the educational context. Therefore, the topic of mobility in education is particularly relevant to the study of intercultural communication. It is also linguistically as well as culturally highly sensitive, as it touches upon social exclusion, segregation and discrimination. Schools across many western countries have experienced a dramatic rise in numbers of newcomer students. In contrast to earlier migration patterns, the present population of migrants is extremely diverse and the group is not well defined (European Commission, 2013). This inherent heterogeneity has forced academic scholars from different disciplines to reconsider their perspectives on education, taking into account this new situation. In this presentation, I will focus on one specific category of migrants, i.e. students with a refugee background. On the basis of an ethnographic study of this group, I will show how intercultural communication has imposed itself as a requirement with regard to the integration of these students in schools. Incited by an increasing appeal for support by many schools, documents from ministries of education around the world endorse social inclusion and propose local mediation between the refugee families and the schools. These efforts are both necessary and laudable. However, the question here is whether these policies are sufficiently informed on what is required to achieve optimal integration and social inclusion of refugee students in the local school (and social) environment. In the light of data gathered during my two latest research projects, I will argue for the need to re-problematize the notions of inclusion, exclusion, integration or segregation in education.