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This chapter provides information on the specific programming needs of victims of torture pursuing higher education, and policy and practice guidelines which will support them in that pursuit. This is a community-based participatory action research project that brought together partners who had educational, research, practical, and real-life expertise in working with marginalized groups on this complex issue, with each partner playing an essential and a vital role in the research. A partnership between George Brown College, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the Wellesley Institute, and the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture established this community-based participatory action research project. The project established innovative outreach for people seeking to integrate into Canadian society through education following experiences of torture and war as a means to aid in the meaningful integration of survivors into Canadian society. This work is scalable to other settings (e.g., universities and colleges across Canada) and groups with experiences of marginalization (e.g., Aboriginals, visible minorities, etc.).

This chapter focuses on the concept integration and its wider meaning in the context of refugees and internally displaced people across the globe. The purpose of this volume is to highlight the various interventions used to integrate refugees and the efforts implemented by the non-governmental organizations and local governments toward achieving an optimal level of integration with host communities. Using case studies and other empirical research, this volume presents a broad and in-depth overview of the various methods implemented to integrate the refugees into the society. This chapter provides an overview to this volume and establishes a framework for a better understanding of the nature of integration. It also reveals the complexity of the perception-practice dynamic and the multifaceted factors, which influence the various levels of integration.