Claire Stiglmeier, a second-year MA student in the International Education Development program at TC, was awarded the 2019 Dean’s Grant for Student Research for her recent work with urban refugees and asylum seekers in Quito, Ecuador.
Out of all of the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Ecuador hosts the largest number of refugees and asylum seekers. Since 2015, political and economic instability have forced close to 1,154,000 Venezuelans to seek asylum in Ecuador.1 They join an already large population of refugees from neighboring Colombia who continue to arrive in increasing numbers as they flee violence between paramilitary groups in the wake of the 2016 Colombian Peace Accord. Additionally, many refugees from Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Haiti have been resettled in Ecuador in recent years.
Authorities are struggling to adapt to the humanitarian needs of this increased population of refugees and asylum seekers. While progress has been made towards the provision of education for urban refugees in Ecuador, many refugee children and youth in the capital, Quito, are still not enrolled in school due to lack of documentation and overcrowded classrooms. However, recent studies have indicated that the desire for education remains high among this population. Increasingly, many urban refugees have turned to non-formal education programs when formal systems fail to meet their needs.2
Claire traveled to Ecuador in January 2019 to implement a mixed-methods study with urban refugees enrolled in non-formal education programs in the capital city of Quito. Her goal was to determine the potential benefits that these programs might have for this vulnerable population. In particular, Claire is interested in determining whether or not there is a relationship between participation in these programs and the development of life skills such as resilience. Using program observations, surveys, interviews and focus group discussions, Claire attempted to measure which skills and behaviors, such as conflict resolution, teamwork, communication and problem solving, were perceived to be gained through participation in these programs and how participants applied these skills in their day-to-day lives.
With this study, Claire aims to contribute to research on non-formal education for urban refugees and asylum seekers, with the hopes of better-informing policies, programs and actors in the field.
Group circle.
Photo credits: Claire Stiglmeier
1. UNHCR. (2019). Global Focus: Operation Ecuador. Geneva: UNHCR. http://reporting.unhcr.org/ node/2543
2. Donger, E., Fuller, A., Bhabha, J., & Leaning, J. (2017). Protecting Refugee Youth in Ecuador: An Evaluation of Health and Wellbeing. Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights for UNHCR.