• Social pedagogical work with children, youth and their families with refugee and migrant background in Europe

    Social pedagogical work with children, youth and their families with refugee and migrant background in Europe


International Journal of Social Pedagogy Special Series.

How does social pedagogy manifest itself when examined from within the field of working with children, youth and their families in the context of refugee and migration in Europe?

This is the pivotal question of this special issue, which seeks to examine the social pedagogical work and identify challenges and possibilities with this group of children, youth, and their families through different disciplinary lenses.

The stream of refugees and migrants, especially from the so-called developing countries in (nearly) all European states during recent years, highlights the necessity of dealing with the complex questions on how to develop social pedagogical interventions that address these challenges. Children, youth and their families from migrant and refugee backgrounds have already been highly debated in Europe, during the last few years, and social pedagogical work already plays a central role with regards to improving this group of people’s everyday life, living conditions, and access to education and the society in general.

This group of children, youth, and their families is often facing numerous challenges already known in the research field, i.e. language, social and emotional problems, growing up, or living in poverty, difficulties getting access to education and work, as well as the possibilities of social inclusion in the society. There is a strong need for knowledge to inform our understanding on how social pedagogical work with children, youth, and their families in the context of refugee and migration in all its forms, is carried out in different countries, and there is a need to analyse and reflect social pedagogy theory and practice in the research field.

This special series aims to analyse social pedagogical work with children, youth, and their families in the context of refugees and migration, with varying empirical focuses and theoretical perspectives based on how social pedagogy works.

Publication date: From April 2021 - October 2022. 



Guest Editor

Associate Professor Kirsten Elisa PetersenDanish School of Education - Educational Psychology, Emdrup, DPU, Aarhus University, Denmark.
Associate Professor Niels Rosendal JensenDanish School of Education - Educational Psychology, Emdrup, DPU, Aarhus University, Denmark.



Article list 


Research article


A social pedagogical model for counselling immigrant students in non-formal adult education

Elina Nivala, Juha Hämäläinen and Eine Pakarinen

2022-02-09 Volume 11 • Issue 1 • 2022

Also a part of:

Special series: Social pedagogical work with children, youth and their families with refugee and migrant background in Europe

A social pedagogy lens for social work practice with return migrants

Kaltrina Kusari and Christine A. Walsh

2021-10-19 Volume 10 • Issue 1 • 2021

Also a part of:

Special series: Social pedagogical work with children, youth and their families with refugee and migrant background in Europe

Leisure and youth clubs’ work with young people of ethnic minority background living in socially deprived housing areas: creating processes of hope and empowerment through social pedagogical work

Kirsten Elisa Petersen

2021-08-24 Volume 10 • Issue 1 • 2021

Also a part of:

Special series: Social pedagogical work with children, youth and their families with refugee and migrant background in Europe

Different reproduction codes as a cause of institutional discrimination against certain milieus of migrant children

Michael May

2021-07-01 Volume 10 • Issue 1 • 2021

Also a part of:

Special series: Social pedagogical work with children, youth and their families with refugee and migrant background in Europe

Daily life and school engagement: An empirical study privileging the first-person perspectives of unaccompanied asylum-seeking adolescents in a Danish context

Nadia Norling Tshili Klarsgaard and Kasper Moes Drevsholt

2021-05-04 Volume 10 • Issue 1 • 2021

Also a part of:

Special series: Social pedagogical work with children, youth and their families with refugee and migrant background in Europe

‘We need to talk about Bona’: An autoethnographic account of fostering an unaccompanied asylum seeker

Maura Daly and Mark Smith

2021-04-21 Volume 10 • Issue 1 • 2021

Also a part of:

Special series: Social pedagogical work with children, youth and their families with refugee and migrant background in Europe