“Schooling Experiences of Refugee Children in Kampala, Uganda: Rethinking Integration Discourse”

Migration and Education Series, Routledge Press.

Coming out August 5th, 2026

The book analyses the state of refugee child integration in the education system in urban primary schools in Uganda, debating policies both pre- and post-COVID, and giving voice to narratives often marginalized in debates concerning refugees in educational spaces in the Global South. 

Using rich ethnographic data collected from primary schools in Kampala, Uganda, the book offers a sociological analysis into the different contextual aspects that shape the lived experiences of refugee children, parents, foster families, and their schools, along with an investigation of policies relating to self-reliance, refugee aid, fostering, and resettlement. Chapters showcase extensive qualitative fieldwork including interviews, document analysis, and focus groups that analysed classroom praxis and interrogated the values instilled in pupils, raising questions about the relevance of western-driven conceptualizations of integration, belonging, and otherness for the Ugandan classroom context. Ultimately, the book demonstrates the importance of context at local, national, and international level in framing the everyday lives of refugee children through their positioning alongside discourses of self-reliance, agency, vulnerability, and inter-dependency. 

Contributing to the much-needed study of learner experiences in urban Global Southern educational contexts, this book will be of value to researchers, scholars and postgraduate students working in the sociology of education, primary and elementary education, and multicultural education more broadly. Policy makers involved with education and development may also find the volume of use.