Immigrants and education

The past 50 years have been a period of unprecedented human mobility. An estimated 214 million people migrated transnationally in 2010 (Ratha et al. 2010). Seventy-three million migrants moved from developing countries to OECD countries, while another 74 million resettled in other developing countries (Ratha et al. 2010, 12). In this era, which is often described as ‘globalizing, ' immigrants strategically navigate overlapping and, at times, contradictory educational settings, routines, and socially sanctioned forms of knowledge. These situations bring issues of language and learning to the fore.