Responding with hospitality: Refugee children in the South African education system

Abstract

Refugees have remained a significant feature on the South Africa landscape and a concern in the country even prior to the advent of democracy. Since the advent of democracy in 1994, South Africa (SA) has received waves of newcomers – people fleeing wars, drought and poverty from countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Angola, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia. South Africa allows for the admittance of refugee children into its system provided they have the requisite documents. This article reports on qualitative research, conducted with refugee children attending a Refugee Bridging Program at Mercy College, an affluent private school in Johannesburg, South Africa. The article addresses the questions: (i) what are the personal and academic experiences of refugee children enrolled in a refugee bridging school programme; and (ii) how does an ethic of hospitality facilitate their integration into education and prepare them for entrance into mainstream schooling? The article provides pen portraits of their personal family biographical details; their pre-flight; flight and settlement experiences; their social and academic experiences; as well as their short-term and long-term academic plans and career aspirations. I draw on theoretical insights from deconstructionist conceptions of hospitality and guest-host dialectics as espoused by Derrida (2001). In addressing issues of marginalisation in relation to access to education, the article argues for complementing a rights-based framework with a hospitality-based framework to respond humanely and with immediacy to refugee children within South African education, thereby giving credence to the country's policy rhetoric to agitate for promoting the values of democracy, social justice, equity, reconciliation, and freedom from violence, discrimination and prejudice.