Refugees’ access to higher education in Italy: An opportunity lost for the ‘Lost Generation’

Tertiary education is a restricted resource, with only 34 per cent of the world’s young people estimated to have access to universities (UNHCR 2016). Among refugees, this figure drops to 1 per cent, and many have been interrupted in their academic development. The high visibility of the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe has pushed governments to work towards the integration of these people, with Italy the country in the European Union (EU) with the highest numbers of such arrivals (UNHCR 2017). This study identifies a series of measures adopted by Italian academic institutions and government—central and regional—to integrate refugees into the country’s higher education system. In this chapter, we will analyse the challenges refugees face in accessing tertiary education, and from this analysis, identify possible areas for improvement to enable students to make the most of their potential.