Bordering, Surveillance, and Schooling: An Integrative Bibliometric-Informed Systematic Review of Refugee/(Im)migrant Education Governance

This study presents a bibliometric analysis of 461 studies on refugee and (im)migrant education governance, covering the period from 2015 to 2025. All studies were articles indexed in the Web of Science category. The analysis reveals publication trends, conceptual and intellectual structures, and the evolution of themes. Data were analyzed using the Bibliometrix R package. Document coupling and thematic analyses indicate a modular research ecosystem structured around policy governance, inclusion and diversity, refugee education, and access to higher education, with governance-focused scholarship playing a prominent connective role. A systematic review, guided by the PRISMA technique, was conducted to enhance these structural insights, focusing on the 25 most cited and conceptually significant studies identified during the bibliometric phase. The systematic review examined research features, participant demographics, educational settings, and analytical frameworks, with particular attention to the theoretical and operational aspects of governance, bordering, and surveillance themes. The findings reveal a pronounced geographic concentration in affluent Western contexts, especially the United States, alongside a smaller but conceptually significant body of work situated in refugee-hosting regions of the Global South. Education systems are consistently described as mechanisms of migratory governance, in which policies, accountability frameworks, and routine institutional activities establish borders and surveillance. This study combines extensive bibliometric mapping with comprehensive systematic synthesis to present a coherent overview of the conceptualization of refugee and (im)migrant education over the past decade, highlighting ongoing theoretical fragmentation and the need for more cross-scalar, integrative strategies in education governance within migration contexts.