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In November 2020, fighting in the Tigray region of Ethiopia destroyed a secondary school which opened in 2018 in the Hitsats refugee camp. The school was attended by both refugees and

Ethiopians. Hitsats was opened in 2013 to accommodate Eritrean refugees. In 2018, it housed over 15,000 refugees, nearly half under the age of 18. It was closed in February 2021. Ethiopia

has a reputation for hosting long-term refugees. It’s the second largest host country in Africa with a hosting history that dates back to the 1950s. During the 2016 Refugee Summit it made

nine pledges to increase opportunities for refugees to engage in legal work, education and land ownership. Most components of these pledges have yet to be fully enacted and most refugees

remain confined to camps. The pledges were voted into Ethiopian law in 2019; the same year that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the border

conflict with Eritrea. ------------------------- _ READ MORE: ABIY AHMED HAS WON THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE: BUT BIG CHALLENGES STILL AWAIT ETHIOPIA _ ------------------------- One of the pledges

promised to build more secondary schools and expand access to a refugee university scholarship programme. But even before the Tigray war, as many as two-thirds of Eritrean refugees, the

majority of whom are young men and unaccompanied minors, chose not to take advantage of educational opportunities designed to keep them in Ethiopia. Instead many of them chose the dangerous

journey to Europe, where they risk falling prey to human traffickers, abuse, detention and death. We conducted research with Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia to find out why they choose to move

on rather than take advantage of the opportunity to get an education. We found that education and local integration programs focus on providing refugees with a safe _place_. However,

refugees also care about _time_ – specifically the future. To feel safe, they need to be able to work toward a desirable future. In other words, they want a life that is ordered

teleologically. WEIGHING THE RISKS Our research took place between 2016 and 2019. We did our fieldwork in three Eritrean refugee camps in the Tigray region and in Addis Ababa, with urban

refugees and policymakers. We also used social media to connect with participants. We discovered that although refugees are aware of the risks of leaving, there are risks to staying,

including the despair of being stuck in ‘camp time’ with no prospects for a future. For some refugees, going to school can alleviate these feelings of hopelessness. One of refugee we spoke

to said this: > I used to spend my time idle, walking around the camp, thinking > about nothing. It stressed me. It’s better to spend your time > meaningfully in school rather than 

sitting at home or in a shelter. But this is not always the case. We found that refugee schools struggle to enrol and retain students. They have low enrolment rates and many students drop

out. The question is this: why do so many refugees leave despite grave risks and the presence of programmes designed to stop them from migrating? Long before the war in Tigray and the

COVID-19 pandemic, refugees weighed the risks of migrating versus remaining. We found that for Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia, the promise of a good education is not enough to make them stay

because there are limited prospects for advancement beyond academic qualifications. Educational opportunities are meaningful to refugees, but also a cause of suffering, particularly for

those who have done well. Educated refugees expect to make progress and attain social status. This is difficult in a camp setting. In the end, the institutions designed to help them move

towards their desired future fail them and make them feel responsible for that failure. Although they are restrained by legal and structural barriers many internalise the blame. Refugees

exist in a painful, unending present. Time in the camps doesn’t move forward. Educated refugees are stuck, without real opportunities to create a path for a better future. WHY REFUGEES

CHOOSE EUROPE Global migration policy focuses on local integration as the most viable solution for an estimated 26 million refugees around the world; half under the age of 18. Protracted

conflicts and widening inequality prevent the return of refugees to their home countries, and less than 1% of refugees are resettled each year. Education potentially anchors refugees in host

countries, promising opportunities, advancement and the chance to fulfil aspirations. But our research suggests that even before the war in Tigray put refugees at more risk, they distrusted

Ethiopia’s commitment to its pledges. We spoke to Berihu, an Eritrean refugee who graduated from an Ethiopian university and became a teacher in the Hitstats camp, who said: > I was 

happy to get this opportunity to have a bachelor’s degree. > But nobody is happy after graduation because they return to the camp > and live like the others. We have to use our 

knowledge to give > something back to society. Graduates like Berihu feel like they can’t use their education to advance their careers in the camps. They also worry about their wellbeing,

the possibility of political violence, or cuts to rations. While educational pathways have opened up, pathways to legal work have only recently become available. Refugee graduates are

confined to “incentive pay” positions in the camps working for small stipends. Habtom, another refugee in Hitsats, was offered a university scholarship. But he worried about falling into

“empty time” in the camp, saying: > Simply sleeping and eating is boring to me. We are like animals. A few months later he began the dangerous journey north. DEAD END PLEDGES Despite

Ethiopia’s 2019 refugee proclamation, the promised future for refugees is distant. They are still primarily housed in camps. The details of how they can work or own businesses are still

being worked out, leaving them vulnerable to low wages and exploitation. And in 2020, Ethiopia announced the end of prima facie status for Eritrean refugees, meaning there are more

bureaucratic hurdles for them to clear. Additionally, there are widespread food shortages in the region. The risks of staying have gotten even greater, which will lead more Eritrean refugees

to take the perilous trip to Europe.