Refugee and Migrant Education in Iran: A Narrative Review and Research Gap Analysis

Document Type : Review article

Authors

1 Farhangian University

2 ACECR, Khorasan Razavi

Abstract
Over the past five decades, Iran has hosted several exceptional waves of migration. Throughout this period, providing educational services to migrants has consistently posed a policy and planning challenge in the face of these large-scale human movements. A systematic and structured understanding of the issues and consequences surrounding migrant education can offer evidence-based feedback to policymakers and planners in the fields of education and migration. This study aims to review and synthesize Persian-language academic and research articles on migrant education in Iran and to identify existing research gaps in this field. To this end, 20 articles that met the inclusion criteria were examined. The characteristics of these studies—including journal and article metadata, publication dates, geographic distribution, thematic focus, theoretical and methodological dimensions, and data collection and analysis tools—were analyzed and summarized. Ultimately, this narrative review identifies key research gaps and offers recommendations for future investigations. According to the findings, frequent themes in existing studies include educational inequality, identity challenges, and the integration of migrant students. However, numerous research gaps remain, such as: limited methodological diversity; insufficient data and comparative studies; weak sensitivity to diversity; a lack of interdisciplinary approaches; limited geographic scope; absence of evaluation and impact studies; little attention to informal and international schools serving migrants; and a scarcity of historical, generational, and cross-national comparative research. Additionally, studies on international aid and cooperation in migrant education are notably lacking.

Keywords


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  • Receive Date 28 June 2025
  • Revise Date 25 August 2025
  • Accept Date 22 September 2025
  • First Publish Date 22 September 2025
  • Publish Date 21 March 2026