Sanctuary Families’ Perspectives on Accessing Education for Children with SEND in England

The experiences of sanctuary seeking families who have a child with special educational needs and/or disability (SEND) are not widely understood. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to critically analyse the perspectives of sanctuary seeking families who are accessing education for children with SEND in England. To realise this aim, eight sanctuary seeking parents who have a child with SEND, engaged in an episodic interview process. Their narratives are analysed through a Bourdieusian framework of capital, habitus, field, and doxa. Analysis of the participants’ voices revealed the challenges and barriers they encountered when accessing the SEND system. These challenges highlight the tensions that arise when sanctuary family’s habitus of disability which is formed within the participants home country, is disrupted upon entering the field of SEND in England. Their challenge is further deepened by the power imbalance and homogenised treatment and assumptions within education, health, and social care settings, whereby their status as a sanctuary seeker defines the support they receive. Disrupting the common deficit portrayal of sanctuary seekers as ‘vulnerable’, this study shows how despite the power imbalance, the acquisition of SEND specific capital and agency can occur through the participants’ connections with different community spaces. Making connections with others who were on the same power level enabled questions to be asked which supported a transformation of thinking. The participants narratives reveal that with appropriate support, the acquisition of SEND specific social capital enabled a longer-term transformation in their habitus of disability which supported their position within the field of SEND.

The implications of this study, illustrate the need for increased awareness of the systematic marginalisation which families of sanctuary can experience when encountering the SEND system. It highlights the need for education, health, and social care professionals to have a greater understanding of how cultural habitus and doxa shape the way families of sanctuary potentially navigate the field of SEND. It concludes that families who fall outside of the normative aims of policy and practice need to be considered to a greater extent by education, health and social care professionals thereby reducing the barriers faced.