Education

• Providing access to school (particularly primary school) to everyone irrespective of migration status is the subject of the universal right to education, firmly recognised by international human rights law. Authorities at all levels are required to respect and fulfil this right.
• Local authorities have domestic legal duties of care towards their juvenile population, irrespective of a child’s immigration status.
• Access to school helps prevent situations of juvenile anti-social behaviour, such as juvenile criminality, inequality and social exclusion.
• In the longer term, children have a higher chance of obtaining a regular residence permit for their country of irregular residence, thus early integration is beneficial.
• Addressing administrative issues relating to the presence in local schools of students with irregular status, and supporting the related costs to schools and students, may be more cost effective for schools. For instance, reimbursing local education facilities for costs that are not reimbursed by national schemes supports the sustainability of school budgets. Supporting the costs of school trips for irregular students who may not afford the relevant fee, for instance, allows the school’s administration to organise the trip more effectively.
• Access to educational and training programmes that complement the mainstream education system offered by local authorities might have a crucial positive impact on the lives of irregular migrants, including adolescents regularly enrolled in mainstream schools but excluded from traineeships and other vocational education and adults who have particular educational needs, e.g. in relation to language skills.

• The right of everyone (irrespective of migration status) and of children in particular to education is a human right firmly recognised by several international human rights treaties, including by Art. 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Art. 23 and 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; Art. 2 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights; and Art. 14 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.
• The UN Global Compact for Migration, under the objective of providing access to basic services for migrants (Obj. 15), includes an action point to: ‘Provide inclusive and equitable quality education to migrant children and youth, as well as facilitate access to lifelong learning opportunities, including by strengthening the capacities of education systems and by facilitating non-discriminatory access to early childhood development, formal schooling, non-formal education programmes for children for whom the formal system is inaccessible, on-the-job and vocational training, technical education and language training, as well as by fostering partnerships with all stakeholders that can support this endeavour’ (para. 31, let. F).
• The Principles and Guidelines on the human rights protection of migrants in vulnerable situations developed by UN-OHCHR with the Global Migration Group recommend that states and other stakeholders ‘develop procedures, mechanisms and partnerships to ensure that all migrant children enjoy effective access to adequate and appropriate education at all levels, including early childhood, primary education – which shall be free and compulsory, secondary and higher education, as well as vocational and language training, on equal terms with nationals’; and that authorities should ‘establish binding and effective firewalls between schools and other education service providers on one hand, and immigration enforcement authorities on the other. Instruct administrators, teachers and parents that they are not required to report or share data on the regular or irregular status of pupils or their parents’.
• In EU law, specific provisions on access to education for children with irregular immigration status are only provided in relation to children whose removal has been postponed, and require that they are provided ‘with access to the basic education system for minors subject to the length of their stay’ (Art. 14, para 1, Return Directive).
• The national legislation of 23 EU countries entitle minors in an irregular situation to attend compulsory education (either explicitly or implicitly through a requirement of all children to attend school). In the other Member States, however, national law does not entitle irregular migrant children to attend school, and in practice the decision on whether to admit them is left to the discretion of each school.
• Education policy is generally a national competency but local authorities are often responsible for the practical management of schools in their territory. They thus play a crucial role in facilitating effective access to education for irregular migrants.
• The Council of Europe ECRI Commission recommended that Member States guarantee access to preschool, primary and secondary education for children with irregular status under the same conditions as nationals of the hosting State; and that they ensure that procedures for enrolment in school do not require documentation relating to immigration status which irregularly present migrants cannot procure.

Instructing local schools to develop enrolment procedures that do not require documentation which irregular migrants cannot procure

To allow enrolment of children with irregular status, local authorities responsible for the administration of schools in their territory should not require the production of a valid residence permit or other documentation that cannot be procured by families and children with irregular immigration status (including a fixed address, official residence into municipal registrars, or social security numbers) for enrolment in local schools.

• Before the issuance of national guidelines on enrolment procedures for irregular children, the Italian cities of Turin, Florence and Genoa issued local ordinances instructing municipally-managed kindergartens not to require any documentation relating to a regular residence at enrolment.
• The City of Barcelona applies flexibility in the registration of irregular migrants in its municipal registrar (padrón) and actively encourages the registration of irregular migrants. Subsequently, the registration in the padrón is made the only essential requirement for irregular children to access municipal schools, with no need to show further documentation.
• Similar to Barcelona, the City of Madrid’s decision to issue municipal ‘civic cards’ to irregular migrants registered in the city’s municipal registrar allows children with irregular status to enrol in local school with this municipal card.

Instructing schools to refrain from reporting students with irregular status to immigration law enforcement authorities (‘firewall’)

Where national law does not clearly provide for a ‘firewall measure’ preventing teachers and school staff from passing on the details of students with irregular status, local authorities can instruct local schools and their employees not to report irregular students and their relatives.

• In Frankfurt, although there does not appear to have been an information campaign provided to schools regarding a change in the law and the interruption of the reporting obligation, schools seemed to be aware of it and include children regardless of their residence status.

Allocating financial resources to cover schools’ costs for irregular students

Where schools are not reimbursed by national funds for costs related to students with irregular status (who do not feature in official counts), municipalities can make budget reservations to cover such expenses, support school costs, and thus avoid reluctance to accept irregular students.

• The City of Ghent has set up a ‘social fund for schools’, a budget reservation aimed at covering unpaid school bills of the children of indigent and vulnerable families, including children with irregular status.
• In the municipality of Sint-Niklaas in Belgium, a solidarity fund has been established to support schools in running special projects in favour of pupils with irregular migration status. All schools raise funding (through events such as school parties) and contribute to a general fund so that they can support one another

Supporting students’ expenses for attending school (such as books, transportation and school meals)

Pupils with irregular status are generally excluded from state financial aid for school expenses, including books, transportation and school meals. As irregular migrants cannot officially work, pupils’ families may often be destitute and unable to bear these costs, which in practice hinders access to school. Municipalities may allocate financial resources to support migrants’ expenses, or support schools or other organisations in covering migrant students’ costs.

• The City of Amsterdam has been financing a local NGO (‘Leren Zonder Papieren’, or Learning without Papers) that provides financial support to families of children with irregular status for school expenses, including school materials, sport clothes and fees for school trips.
• The City of Ghent provides free public transportation to school for all students, including those with irregular status, by reimbursing the costs of a ‘bus pass’. To enable students without residence permit to obtain the pass, the city made an agreement with the bus company to allow social assistants within the school to request the pass via a secured/protected platform on the website of the bus company. The latter delivers the passes to the school, which then hands them to the students.
• In Cardiff, local authority staff have reported using their discretionary powers to support migrant children, to whom they apply higher eligibility criteria to circumvent their heightened vulnerability. This may translate into providing a free school uniform, free transportation, or cover other basic needs such as a warm coat for the winter. With the support of Cardiff Council, the City of Sanctuary movement initiated a School of Sanctuary offshoot, designed to provide a welcoming and caring environment for those people in need of help.

Including irregular migrants in adult educational services, language classes, training and vocational programmes offered by local authorities outside of the mainstream education system

Municipalities often offer a range of educational opportunities beyond the mainstream educational system. These programmes are often geared toward individuals out of mainstream education, particularly adults and/or foreigners who did not receive official education in the country where they reside, or who have particular education needs, e.g. in relation to language skills. These programmes can offer crucial education for irregular migrants, particularly adults out of schooling age who are not in the official labour market and may not have sufficient skills in the local language.

• A consortium of the City of Barcelona with the Autonomous Community of Catalonia offers complementary ‘adult education’ courses for adults who could not access good-quality education, those who have dropped out of education, or migrants who did not receive education in Spain and who need to learn the language. These courses are open to migrants with irregular status, as long as they can show a passport (also see Box 18).

Municipalities also offer complementary educational services that target the specific educational needs of migrants.

• The City of Barcelona funds a network of NGOs (‘social entities’) to offer programmes in the sphere of education, including training courses and classes in Catalan and Spanish, to migrants regardless of status. The network also provides legal advice on how to obtain recognition of qualifications obtained abroad. Barcelona’s SAIER centre (see Box 8) informs irregular migrants of opportunities to access educational and training services offered by the city.
• About 25 municipalities in Catalonia have joined an innovative ‘mentoring’ project led by Catalan universities aimed at increasing interactions between migrant children and local university students. The programme matches university students with migrant and refugee children in primary and secondary schools, including children with irregular status. Mentors and mentees meet once a week after school for at least seven months. Mentors are expected to help migrant children practice the Catalan language, but also to discover the city and the leisure and cultural activities it offers. The programme is expected to develop higher educational expectations for the children, help them learn to navigate in the new educational context, and develop their sense of belonging to the city. The programme eventually aims to address social problems faced by recently-arrived migrant children, such as inequality and social exclusion. The programme is based on a ‘dual benefits approach’ because it also aims to improve the intercultural competencies of university students to help them in their future as professionals in a diverse society. Participating local authorities and universities do not inquire about the immigration status of children signing up to the programme. On the contrary, they and their families are asked to enrol according to a set of criteria (i.e. whether the child would be the first in their families to reach the university, if they do so; whether they lack a caring environment; etc.).