The drawing above depicts a virus. Next to it is the word ‘corona’ with an arrow pointing to the virus. Around the drawing there are several sentences with the words: ‘quarantine in their own room’, ‘you have to wear a mask’, ‘one metre distance between friends’, ‘corona is very contagious’ and ‘not good for school because it is contagious’.
The drawing was made by a child with a refugee or asylum background in the Nordic region. It and several other drawings are part of a Nordic research project that will help provide a picture of how children and young people with refugee and asylum background felt during the pandemic.
“The children's drawings, like the one above, show that they received the authorities' information, that they remember it well, and that they are adapting to it. In this and other drawings that more concretely depict their experiences and emotions, the children show that the pandemic had an impact on their lives.”
So says Hanne Riese, Professor of Education at the University of Innlandet in Norway. She leads the research project ‘Education of Refugees and Asylum Seekers during and post the Pandemic in Nordic Countries (ERAPAN)’. They are investigating how the pandemic restrictions and post-pandemic conditions have affected the educational pathways of children and young people with refugee and asylum backgrounds in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway.
In most pandemic research, children and young people with a refugee and asylum background are a group that has gone under the radar. This Nordic research project aims to change that.
“It has been shown that some students thrived at home during the pandemic, so we can't simply assume that children and young people with a refugee and asylum background got worse during the pandemic. However, children and young people with a refugee and asylum background generally have a more difficult time in the education system than other children, so there is reason to fear that the pandemic restrictions created more problems for them than for others. They also belong to a group whose voice is not often heard,“ Hanne Riese.
The drawings will help the children recall how they experienced the time during the pandemic.
“In our experience, children and young people are able to express experiences and memories when they draw. Drawing is a way to recall experiences that they may not be able to put into words. They draw both situations from the classroom and experiences they've had outside of school, and they often express moods,” says Hanne Riese.
Minorities must be cared for according to the Nordic school model
The children and young people with refugee and asylum background included in the study include those who lived in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark before the pandemic, were of school age during the pandemic and are still living in the Nordic region today.
The researchers are investigating what restrictions were put in place in schools, what school and educational measures were put in place for children and young people, and whether special consideration was given to children and young people with refugee and asylum backgrounds. They talked to children and young people aged 10 to 25 and parents with children under the age of 18.
“The ideology of the Nordic welfare states in relation to the education system is that minorities should be taken care of and that they should have just as good opportunities to succeed in school as the majority. It's just not necessarily the case that this is always practised. The Nordic countries have different immigration policies, and school policy is also affected by this,” she says.
As a final part of the project, the researchers will share their findings with the research participants. Through workshops, the researchers and research participants will work together to understand the impact the pandemic has had. The goal is to come up with a list of suggestions for what Nordic governments should keep in mind to safeguard children and young people with refugee and asylum backgrounds for the next pandemic.
Child and youth wellbeing in the post-pandemic Nordic Region
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the Nordic countries in spring 2020, restrictions were quickly put in place, many of which directly affected the everyday lives of children and young people.
ERAPAN is one of eight research projects on children and young people funded by NordForsk. The projects will investigate children and young people's education, well-being, mental health and living conditions during and after the pandemic.
Read more about the research on children and young people.
