From Camp to Campus: social investment in refugees and newcomers through higher education

Belgium has one of the largest “ethnic divides” within the EU, both in education and in the labour market: low participation of migrants in higher education (HE), high unemployment and inactivity rates, and severe “brain waste” among those in employment. Refugees are particularly vulnerable in this respect, given their forced departure and interrupted careers. The usual integration pathways for newcomers to Belgium are insufficiently adapted to qualified refugees and newcomers. The need for a better integration policy has become even more urgent since the war in Ukraine, which has led to a large influx of educated refugees to Belgium. However, there are strong reasons (demographic, economic and budgetary) to implement a far-reaching policy change to integrate medium- to highly-skilled refugees and newcomers: a social investment strategy. Higher education is a typical example of social investment. The research objective of “From Camp to Campus” is to lay a strong theoretical and empirical foundation for an innovative “social investment approach” (SI) in higher education to improve the integration of refugees and newcomers.