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Drawing on insights from the UK network, this post calls for a shift away from reductive, deficit-based framings of learners seeking sanctuary.^[1] Instead, it argues for asset-based and holistic approaches that benefit every learner and whole-school practice.

Deficit responses to learners seeking sanctuary

Research suggests educators often view learners seeking sanctuary narrowly: as English language learners, traumatised, or in need of specialist support (; ). This reflects my experience managing the Schools of Sanctuary programme. After the arrivals from Afghanistan and Ukraine, and the wider dispersal of asylum‑seeking families in 2022, enquiries from schools rose sharply. Most focused on English acquisition, referrals to mental health services, or access to additional funding. While teachers emphasised wanting to do their best, they also felt out of their depth and overstretched.

Given the pressures facing schools and limited teacher training on supporting refugee and asylum-seeking learners (), such responses are understandable. However, when learners are framed primarily through deficit or need, schools risk defaulting to ‘bolt-on’ interventions.

‘When learners are framed primarily through deficit or need, schools risk defaulting to “bolt-on” interventions.’

Reductive framing also overlooks the diversity among learners seeking sanctuary who arrive from different countries and contexts, with varied educational histories, family situations and migration journeys. Their legal status further shapes their realities and futures in the UK distinctly.

This complex matrix of experiences means learners may face housing insecurity, poverty, racism, xenophobia, language barriers or mental health challenges. Crucially, these challenges are not inherent to learners seeking sanctuary but arise from wider social and structural inequalities, experienced by many others in education.

Towards an asset-based mindset

Adopting a holistic, asset-based approach strengthens whole-school inclusive practice and benefits wider groups of learners. Embedding culturally responsive mental health provision supports many young people experiencing distress, while extending language-conscious approaches enhances learning for all pupils and complements English as an additional language-specific provision for multilingual learners. Thoughtful, wraparound support for families can also benefit all learners facing poverty or insecurity.

A multidimensional approach must also extend beyond policy and provision into curriculum and school life. Such an approach looks beyond statistics to understand the varied lived experiences of migration and exploring commonalities as well as differences (). It also involves critically examining if, how and where migrants and people seeking sanctuary are represented. In an ongoing project with the University of Newcastle focused on how to teach about (forced) migration, we’ve seen how some schools focus solely on refugees, ignoring people seeking asylum and other migrant groups, which can reinforce the ‘deserving/undeserving’ binary. There are dangers with relying on one-off activities looking at key terms, facts and figures, sidelining the people who experience displacement, or on a single book which reinforces the idea of a homogeneous refugee experience. As one parent with lived experience shared, when the only representation of refugees in her daughter’s school was a girl’s traumatic flight to safety, her daughter became frustrated with her classmates’ pity and assumption that her journey had been the same.

With anti-refugee sentiment entwined with worsening xenophobia, it is vital that we consider how migration, including forced migration, is woven through the curriculum. Representations should be well rounded, avoiding narratives that reduce individuals to victims, and instead reflecting their varied backgrounds, skills, goals and interests, while helping all learners understand their own connections to migration. from pupils’ families and communities help them understand why people move, the experiences involved, and – at older ages – the histories and power structures behind them. This approach challenges stereotypes, supports learners seeking sanctuary to feel valued, and fosters belonging, by deepening understanding of how migration has shaped communities and families.

‘Learners seeking sanctuary should not be viewed as a challenge to manage but instead can remind schools of their values and mission.’

In my work I hear how an asset-based approach shifts focus from perceived ‘issues’ to recognising the cultural, linguistic and social resources learners seeking sanctuary and their families bring, alongside their agency and aspirations. In one school, a Syrian student helped the school football team win a city championship for the first time. Another overcame language barriers to secure a place at a prestigious arts institution and now returns to share her story and talents. Elsewhere, a headteacher described learners seeking sanctuary as the most significant factor in increased engagement, inspiring peers with resilience and determination.

Conclusion

Learners seeking sanctuary should not be viewed as a challenge to manage but instead can remind schools of their values and mission. When approached holistically and through an asset-based lens, their arrival and presence become an opportunity to enrich school communities and strengthen inclusive practice for everyone.

[1] At City of Sanctuary UK, we prefer to use ‘people/learners seeking sanctuary’ to put the people first, recognising terms like ‘refugees’ or ‘asylum seekers’ can be reductive and dehumanising.