Official URL: https://www.aewb-nds.de/themen/eu-programme/divers...

Adult education (AE) as a field is ever evolving and the challenges of the last decade have shown our adaptability and our commitment to supporting societal advancement and to strengthening social cohesion. The refugee crisis of 2015/16 offered both challenges and opportunities to AE, seeing the investment of unprecedented sums of money to enable the system to absorb the influx of migrants with pressing needs for linguistic and cultural knowledge. The sector responded capably and creatively during the crisis. However, it is now evident that these funds, especially allocated to integration efforts, will not extend far into the future. As funding dries up, the structures built to accommodate the huge temporary demand may be dismantled. But was this ‘it’ for migrants in AE? Do we just return to ‘business as usual’? Statistics show that few migrants transition into the ‘regular’ programmes after having completed mandatory integration courses. There are many reasons – lack of money and time, a utilitarian view of education only being a few examples. However, migrants are likely to make up an increasing share of our societies and are thus a target group we should aspire to activate longer term.