On November 20 and 21, JICUF co-hosted a workshop titled “Skills-Based Pathways for Refugees: Challenges and Solutions for Long-Term Integration” at the Embassy of Canada to Japan. Approximately 70 participants gathered from around the world to discuss how to admit more refugees through educational and professional opportunities.
Ms. Takako Miyazaki is a graduate of ICU who has spent much of her life in the US, and served as the president of ICU’s Alumni Association in the Americas in the 1990s. Through the ICU AAA, she had several memorable encounters with Dr. Sadako Ogata, the former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. We asked Ms. Miyazaki to share them with us.
The second Global Refugee Forum will be held in Geneva from December 13 to 15. JICUF submitted a pledge to the Forum to continue supporting refugee higher education.
Mr. Norimasa Orii graduated from ICU in 1991, and ICU High School in 1987. He has played a crucial role in JICUF’s scholarship program for Syrian students, the Syrian Scholars Initiative. In 2017, as Program Manager at the Japan Association for Refugees, Mr. Orii helped JICUF establish the Initiative, and has since worked with us to reach out to Syrian students in Turkey, identify eligible students, facilitate their entry to Japan, and support them after arrival. We asked the current Representative Director of Pathways Japan to reflect on his time at ICU and his career.
Earlier this month, JICUF Executive Director Paul Hastings was invited by the Institute of International Education to speak at a workshop in Vietnam on the topic of refugee higher education. JICUF’s scholarship program for Syrian students, the Syrian Scholars Initiative, is the only private sponsorship program hosted by a university in Japan and has garnered much interest among the international community. ICU Professor Osamu Arakaki also participated in the workshop.
