“What is the Point of School Anyway?”: Refugee Youth, Educational Quality, and Resettlement Tunnel Vision

Abstract

Drawing from three years of ethnographic engagement at a refugee school in Egypt, this study explores how refugee youths’ resettlement aspirations collide with the systemic barriers that define their displacement contexts. This study contributes to the field of anthropology and education by pointing to the limitations of quality learning environments in contexts where the future life chances of refugee students are already predetermined by structural barriers that texture their home, community, and host country environments.