ABSTRACT
This chapter uses case studies to bring the question of civil society integration into sharp focus by addressing the education of refugees, which is arguably the most significant indicator of long-term coexistence as well as sociopolitical and economic participation. Focusing on Austria and Germany, which in 2015 opened their borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees, the authors present and analyze two distinctive cases they led on the ground where demand far exceeded supply in meeting the educational needs of the newly arrived refugees: A refugee teacher program in Potsdam, Germany, and refugee student programs in Vienna, Austria. The Refugee Teacher Program is based on the reprofessionalization of refugee teachers through joint education with German students at the University of Potsdam. Refugee teachers participate in internships at local schools, contributing to an internationalization of German education while also facilitating higher minority student performance. In Austria, the school board introduced “New to Vienna” classes to help refugee students reach some German-language proficiency and to integrate them into mainstream schools, while local classes were opened at every refugee camp to ensure that children could have access to basic education from the very beginning; however, teachers were left alone to navigate sometimes irreconcilable mores.
