Exclusion and Resilience in Urban Education: Migrant and Refugee Students’ Struggles for Inclusion in an Urban District

This study critically explores how urban inequalities shape the educational experiences of migrant and refugee students in Zeytinburnu, an ethnically diverse and economically marginalized district of Istanbul. Informed by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, a multi-stakeholder ethnographic design was employed to capture perspectives from administrators, teachers, municipal officers, experts, and students. Through content analysis, six interrelated themes emerged—cultural integration, discrimination and prejudice, economic hardship, educational disruption, language barriers, and social exclusion—highlighting how structural and contextual dynamics such as child labour and limited language support deepen school-based marginalization. The findings demonstrate that inequality is reproduced not only through institutional mechanisms but also through neighbourhood-level deprivation and weak social integration networks. The study argues that equitable educational reform requires interventions that extend beyond schools, addressing the socio-urban conditions that shape students’ opportunities for inclusion and learning.