Language is far more than a communication tool in the context of migration and displacement. It becomes a vital bridge linking people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Indeed, in Alison Phipps’ powerful book “Decolonising Multilingualism: Struggles to Decreate”, learning language is theorised as a complex practice rife with many possibilities. The ethics of language learning in a world of displacement indeed requires deep attention to reflective practices, to moving past colonial linguistic mindsets, and to listening. An ongoing partnership between the University of Edinburgh and Project CARE (Community Action for and with Refugees in Edinburgh) has, since 2022, been exploring some of the many possibilities of active language-based learning exchanges. Through teaching English to refugees and asylum seekers, MSc students have explored and supported language learning trajectories of refugees from Afghanistan, Eritrea and Sudan, as they experience life in Scotland. Project CARE, a grassroots Edinburgh-based initiative, has been supporting refugees from a vast number of countries in the earliest months of their arrival. Its approach recognises that learning new language skills is inevitably an important part in integrating into a new community – and is experienced in very different ways by different people. In programmes set up at St Ninian’s Episcopal Church, MSc students from the University of Edinburgh not only teach English, but more importantly, build bonds through conversation, supporting the agency of those who have faced displacement. Students also acquire new insights from hearing some of the refugees come and speak in the classroom about their experiences, as part of the Displacement and Development course. For example, guest speakers in 2022, 2023 and 2024 helped students explore ways of moving past oversimplified ideas of refugee ‘integration’, inviting sensitive learning about social, economic and cultural meanings of what ‘integration’ may entail. MSc and PhD students also benefited from precious avenues for community-engaged learning this partnership offered. Weekly English classes as reciprocal learning avenues The weekly English classes and conversation cafes offer more than learning basic English; they help create a welcoming atmosphere to make refugees feel that they belong, help forge connections and boost their confidence in communication, knowing that proficiency in English could unlock doors to education, jobs, and essential services. The programmes and activities of Project CARE provide safe spaces for the refugees and asylum seekers to be themselves as they tell their stories and insights. They also help in cultivating a sense of community and belonging that ultimately build a network of support. In 2023, four students from the Displacement and Development course supported this initiative as mentors and cultural allies for the refugees and asylum seekers (some facing deep uncertainties about future accommodation and educational opportunities). While students in the course explored the complexities of “social justice” and “decolonisation” in refugee studies, multicultural exchanges allowed students to gain personal experience and a richer understanding of complexities relating to displacement over time. As one student expressed:
“I feel teaching English is just one side of the story. I’ve earned more because I made connections and was profoundly inspired by their undying hope and resilience.”This exchange seeks to help provide tools for refugees and asylum seekers to integrate into their new reality. Students, meanwhile, actively engage with social justice and global issues, and, in some cases, have benefited from seeing, in the classroom, the artistic creations of refugees supported by Project CARE, which express migration journeys and changing senses of ‘home’ (Figure 1).
“I always feel a renewed sense of hope when I attend the class, even though sometimes I can barely understand what we were studying because learning is like receiving a key that will help me unlock doors of opportunity.“Ultimately, these initiatives are guided by the thinking that the power of education and human connection can help tackle challenges of migration and displacement to shape and pave the way toward a more equitable future. Reflecting on the language used in the classroom is itself a vital need – and we are all – everyone – constantly learning new languages as we learn – this itself is a vital part of pedagogic reflection in this field (see also Cox et al, 2022; and Fassetta and Imperiale, 2023; Spiegel et al., 2024). Complementing new vocabularies generated by literature-based learning, students at the university continue to explore different kinds of language about hope, empathy, belonging, home, and connection. In 2025, there will be further dimensions of this ongoing educational partnership between the University and Project CARE. Notably, an art exhibition is planned to explore further meanings associated with displacement and its many after-effects. References Cox, S., Phipps, A., & Hirsu, L. (2022). Language learning for refugee women in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic: restorative pedagogies for integrating to place—perspectives from Scotland. Frontiers in Communication, 7, 982813. Fassetta, G., & Imperiale, M. G. (2023). Language and Integration of Refugee Children: Reflections on Delinking and Decoloniality. L2 Journal: An electronic refereed journal for foreign and second language educators, 15(1). Phipps, A. (2019). Decolonising multilingualism: Struggles to decreate. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Spiegel S.J. Mucherera, B., Idrees, S., McAteer, B., Moze, F., Rajadhyaksha, K., Mutambasere, T., Falisse, J.B., Cole, G., Qadir, S. (2024). Displacement, Borders and Unsettling Narratives: Critical Directions for Higher Education. New York: Palgrave, 171 pages.
Lei Garcia
Sam Spiegel
