ABSTRACT
The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have seen an international increase in numbers of those seeking refugee status (Audit Commission 2000; UNHCR 2000, 2001, 2002; UN 2002j, 2002l, 2002q). The media often couch discussions of asylum and refugee status in emotive terms. Words and expressions like ‘swamped’ and a ‘flood of refugees’ are designed to create at worst alarm and even panic, a sense of a situation out of control, and at the very least disquiet and unease amongst those with established status as citizens. Asylum seekers and refugees are at the margins of citizenship. They are often formally citizens, sometimes with few rights, of countries where it is no longer safe or viable for them to live. Few countries openly welcome such newcomers to their borders and local neighbourhoods are often openly hostile to such strangers in their midst. For the religious educator asylum and refugee status present unique opportunities. It is one area where school communities, especially but not exclusively in urban areas, will have direct experience. Yet just because asylum seekers are from diverse cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds, it does not mean that the religious educator should have sole expertise. Still, the religious and cultural element does give the religious educator some degree of authority to address this contentious aspect of citizenship.
