Contexts of International Migration and Multilingualism for Students with Disabilities in Transition to Postsecondary College and Career

Dear Colleagues,

The purpose of this Special Issue is to initiate and foster an international conversation advancing equitable outcomes for young adults with disabilities who accept increasing responsibilities for their well-being as they move into adulthood.

As recent as 2024, the world’s migrant population—people living in a country other than the country of their birth—numbered approximately 304 million, slightly under 4% of the total population (United Nations, 2024). Thirteen percent of all migrants were children under the age of 18 (UNICEF, 2021), including those accompanied by and those separated from their families, those whose migration was voluntary, and those experiencing forced migration. Reasons for migration include, but are not limited to, combinations of the following: access to labor, education, shelter, and health care; resource scarcity and famine; political conflict and war; acts of violence and enslavement, and existential economic and climate threats (migrationdataportal.org). According to the International Rescue Committee, a global nongovernmental organization serving migrant populations, people who migrate may also seek permanent residence in countries other than their birthplace, becoming members of an immigrant population in the receiving country. Immigrants experience variable treatment ranging from care, aid, and employment to maltreatment, marginalization, and ostracization (e.g., getting labeled as “illegal,” “alien,” or “undocumented”).

Educating children who migrate can be framed as an intersectional issue. Borrowing from intersectionality in law (Crenshaw, 1990; 2019), identity (Nunes, 2021; Plank, 2021; Valez & Spencer, 2018), and research (Annamma et al., 2013; Esposito & Evans-Winters, 2022), migration and education are intersecting social phenomena. Thus, intersectional lenses can illuminate education experiences, including the transition to adulthood, as they overlap and collide with migration experiences. Intersectionality includes how a person’s multiple social identities (e.g., race, ethnicity, disability, gender, age, citizenship status) inform being in, engaging with, and understanding the world; how individuals’ and communities’ lived experiences and social histories also form their participation in it; and how these responses confer power and privilege, as well as vulnerability and risk (Esposito & Evans-Winters, 2022). Migration and education are inseparable when considering and accepting that children, including those with disabilities, have human rights and that these include the right to live without threats to their existence and the right to be educated ("Universal Declaration of Human Rights," 1948; United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989).

Migration includes people with disabilities because disability is part of the human experience. Children with disabilities are members of groups who migrate incidentally (i.e., their parent’s career demanded an international move) and those who migrate intentionally (i.e., their family was in search of disability care). Migration itself can also be traumatic, and therefore can be associated with disabilities such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In addition to causal links between trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, trauma can also have “adverse implications for an individual’s cognitive, behavioral, affective, biological, psychological, and social development” (Hatzikiriakidis et al., 2023, p. 900). Children with disabilities, including those exposed to migration-associated trauma, have a right to educational services.

In the context of transition, education and migration intersect as youth’s cultural and linguistic identities associated with home and new residences shape their development and growth as they move from compulsory secondary school into adulthood (Kangas, 2020; Trainor et al., 2022). Young adults with disabilities have historically faced marginalizing systemic barriers that, at times, cross geo-political borders. For example, in the US context, access to health care in adulthood is associated with full-time employment, but, for migrants, employment opportunities can be limited by citizenship status. For young adults with disabilities, the challenges of individual and intergenerational familial citizenship documentation can present obstacles beyond those associated with disability biases and barriers. Fewer than a third of adults with disabilities are employed full-time with benefits (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). Employer biases, accessibility limitations, and other obstacles prevent or inhibit employment experiences and career development, and a lack of employment can contribute to marginalization associated with poverty, social isolation, and thwarted personal goal development.

Historically, the US has been one of the many countries around the world to address the under- and un-employment of people with disabilities by establishing policies promoting the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workforce. Unfortunately, such initiatives, often included as a part of larger diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, are being challenged worldwide, destabilizing supportive resource streams for youth in transition. This may have the effect of reducing young adults’ access to economic, intellectual, and social well-being and full participation in society. In the US context, for example, recent efforts to eradicate federal protection against discrimination included in Section 504 plans for individuals with disabilities may limit access to essential supports and services in education and employment settings.

This Special Issue is focused on youths’ postschool transitions, disability, and human migration. We welcome international research with and by people with disabilities in service to greater equity and inclusion among all people in recognition of historical and contemporary inequitable access to resources, power, and privilege. In doing so, we recognize that migrant communities are often diasporic, and individuals have intersectional identities related to ability, race/ethnicity, language and culture, gender identity and sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, geographic location, and socio-political realities affected by conflict.

We invite manuscripts with a focus on equity and human rights in international transition contexts. We are specifically interested in articles covering topics including, but not limited to, (1) perspectives and experiences of recently immigrated and/or transnational young adults with disabilities; (2) migrating family involvement, engagement, and collaboration in transition education; (3) asset-based approaches to supporting transition for young adults with disabilities who are mobile; (4) the development of educators and related service providers who have the attitudes and skills necessary for supporting migration and transnational young adults with disabilities; (5) examples of resistance to and strategies for navigating socio-political systemic barriers to equity; and (6) research methodological advancements for studying all of the above in tenuous times.

References

Annamma, S. A., Connor, D. J., & Ferri, B. (2013). Dis/ability critical race studies (DisCrit): Theorizing at the intersections of race and dis/ability. Race, Ethnicity & Education, 16(1), 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2012.730511.

Crenshaw, K. W. (1990). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299.

Crenshaw, K. W., Harris, L. C., Martinez Hosang, D., & Lipsitz, G. (Eds.). (2019). Seeing race again. University of California Press.

Esposito, J., & Evans-Winters, V. (2022). Introduction to intersectional qualitative research. Sage.

Hatzikiriakidis, K., O'Connor, A., Savaglio, M., Skouteris, H., & Green, R. (2023). The interconnectedness of disability and trauma in foster and kinship care: The importance of trauma-informed care [Article]. International Journal of Disability, Development & Education, 70(5), 899–910. https://doi.org/10.1080/1034912X.2021.1921126.

International Rescue Committee. (2018). Migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants: What’s the difference? Retrieved March 2 from https://www.rescue.org/article/migrants-asylum-seekers-refugees-and-immigrants-whats-difference.

Kangas, S. E. N. (2020). Counternarratives of English learners with disabilities. Bilingual Research Journal, 43(3), 267–285. https://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2020.1807424.

Nunes, F. (2021). Critical and intersectional perspectives on immigrant youth cultural identity. International Journal of Mental Health & Addiction, 19(3), 606–615. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-019-00093-2.

Plank, K. M. (2019). Intersections of identity and power in educational development. New Directions for Teaching & Learning, 2019(159), 85–96. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.20351.

Trainor, A. A., Romano, L., Chen, Y.-L., Newman, L., & Ozuna Presinal, S. (2022). Secondary students receiving special education and English learner services: Identity informed transitions. Multiple Voices, 22(2), 4–24. https://doi.org/10.56829/2158-396X-22.2.4.

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. (2024). International migrant stock, 2024. https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/content/international-migrant-stock.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, (1948). https://www.ohchr.org/en/universal-declaration-of-human-rights.

UNICEF. (2024). Child and young migrants. Migration data portal: The bigger picture. (2024). Retrieved February 26, 2025, from https://www.migrationdataportal.org/themes/child-and-young-migrants.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2025). Persons with a disability: Labor force characteristics https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/disabl.pdf.

Velez, G., & Spencer, M. B. (2018). Phenomenology and intersectionality: Using PVEST as a frame for adolescent identity formation amid intersecting ecological systems of inequality. New Directions for Child & Adolescent Development, 2018(161), 75–90. https://doi.org/10.1002/cad.20247.

Prof. Dr. Audrey Trainor
Lindsay Romano
Guest Editors

Logan Roberts
Guest Editor Assistant

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