Refugee Youth in Kazakhstan Aim Higher

Originally posted on the Transforming Education Summit blog. 

Armin was just six years old when he came to Kazakhstan, fleeing war and violence in his homeland, Afghanistan. He arrived with his parents, three-year-old brother, newborn sister and the hope that one day, they can all return home.

Now, 15 years later – with the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan only deteriorating further – Armin speaks fluent Russian (one of Kazakhstan’s official languages) and has successfully completed his primary and secondary education as a registered refugee in the Kazakhstani public school system. Completing high school with strong academic grades, and a preference for the sciences, Armin wanted to go on to university to study to become a doctor.

Unlike his schoolmates, though, because Armin is a refugee, higher education was almost out of reach.

Refugee rights in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan became a member of the United Nations in 1992, soon after its independence. In 1999, the country acceded the Refugee Convention and its Protocol – the main international instruments to protect refugees – and in 2009 introduced its first-ever Law on Refugees. In accordance with the Refugee Convention, the Law on Education ensures refugee children have the same right as nationals to access primary and secondary education.

As of June 2022, Kazakhstan hosts 352 refugees (along with 648 asylum-seekers and 7,558 Stateless persons). Most of the refugees have been living in the country for years, or even decades. They speak the local language, and some have family ties with citizens.

Kazakhstan’s Law on Refugees, however, restricts refugees’ residence permits to only one year at a time, which is less than for other foreigners in the country and therefore not in alignment with the Refugee Convention. Without permanent residency status, they do not have access to most social, economic and civic rights.

The prohibitive cost of higher education

Recognizing the often-significant costs involved with higher education, and as an upper-middle-income country, the Government of Kazakhstan offers a number of grants each year to the highest-performing students among citizens.

With only temporary residency status, refugees are excluded from competing for these grants – higher education is therefore only accessible to those who have the financial means. It is often impossible for refugee families to prioritize higher education when there are mouths to feed, rent to pay and extra costs for younger children to attend school.

Despite achieving high academic grades, cultural integration and determination, most refugee youth cannot afford higher education. This limits their prospects of finding formal and stable employment in the future and their ability to fully contribute to the economy and society of Kazakhstan.

Filling the gap to higher education access

In recent years, some universities and organizations have stepped in to fill this gap. Al-Farabi Kazakh National University gave two refugee students full academic scholarships in 2020, and the Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative (DAFI) launched in Kazakhstan in 2021, supporting seven refugee youth to attend university. Armin is one of the DAFI scholars, now pursuing a degree in General Medicine.

The application cycle for the 2022 DAFI scholarships in Kazakhstan has just been completed. As in 2021, most of the applicants were women, and most applied to fields of study related to medicine.

UNHCR, together with the UN Country Team in Kazakhstan, is advocating for refugee students to be able to compete for government grants for higher education alongside their national peers.

Representing refugee youth at the recent Transforming Education Summit National Consultation in Kazakhstan, Armin voiced the request that “the grants allocated for foreigners by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan also include refugees as a target group”.

Armin voiced the request that “the grants allocated for foreigners by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan also include refugees as a target group”.

As Armin noted to consultation participants, there are 44 refugees in Kazakhstan between the ages of 18 and 24 years. Allowing them the opportunity to compete on par with citizens for the government grants would have negligible impact on the budget allocated for education but enormous impact on their possibilities to have professional careers and become self-sufficient.

Higher education provides academic enrichment, promotes social cohesion and increases confidence and motivation of young people to serve society. Providing access to higher education for refugees is at the heart of both the Global Compact on Refugees and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

With 2022 marking 30 years of membership to the UN, could this be one of the ways that Kazakhstan transforms education?

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