Arabic, along with English and Burmese. A number of refugees wanted their children to learn Bengali, based on the possibility that they could be in Bangladesh for years, but the Bangladeshi Government does not permit Bengali as the language of instruction. Marriage. While refugees viewed marriage as an important part of a good future, the disruption of displacement and lack of money to pay the dowry that is expected in Rohingya culture has created significant challenges. While payment of a dowry is seen as problematic by some international humanitarian actors, the practice of the dowry was spoken about by Rohingya refugees as part of their cultural practice. One elderly woman said, ‘I have daughters and I cannot let them go out to work because they are not married and I cannot marry them off because I cannot pay [the] dowry so I am worried’. An 18-yearold female orphan in Unchiprang said: ‘I do not have any parents and we do not have enough money and cannot marry me. The suitors coming demanding a lot of money. I am worried about that … This is a big issue for me’. While both men and women raised this issue, it disproportionately affected women and was seen as a pervasive concern for some of those we interviewed. While child marriage was not raised as a key concern by refugees we spoke with, early marriage for girls is common among Rohingya communities (Plan International: 2018: 19). Pressures created by the challenging conditions facing refugees in Bangladesh, including limited income and education opportunities, risk an increase in early or forced marriage. Livelihoods. Lastly, refugees cited inability to move freely, work and support their families as a challenge. Issues around this and livelihoods more broadly are discussed in Chapter 3. The challenges outlined above provide insight into the lives and struggles of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Although many are immediate issues – such as improving WASH and education – they stand to have a long-term impact on the lives of the Rohingya. They also frame the way Rohingya refugees think about their medium- to long-term future. While many of the Rohingya we spoke to are actively navigating these challenges as best they can with the resources they have, such as by selling rations to pay for other necessities, limited assets and restrictions on everything from education to freedom of movement mean that refugees are highly constrained in trying to overcome these challenges and improve their lives. Box 1: Pervasive worry and uncertainty The challenges identified in this study (inability to meet basic needs, overcrowded camps, lack of livelihood opportunities) have been strongly associated with symptoms of depression among Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh (Riley et al., 2017). Many interviewees are affected by a pervasive sense of worry and uncertainty about the future. One 40-year-old with nine children said ‘I am very worried about my future and about my children’s futures. I am thinking will they be able to have success in their future? I am worried about my children’s education and how much can they educate themselves in such circumstances’. A 35-year-old man with three children, who put significant value on education, said that his hair was turning grey because he was so worried about the future. These feelings of anxiety reflect patterns found in other protracted emergencies. 3.2  Refugees’ goals and aspirations When asked about their goals and aspirations, both men and women identified quality education for their children as a top priority. Yet the latest JRP reports that, among refugees in the camps, ‘approximately 50% of pre-primary and primary learners – as well as 97% of youth and adolescents – lack access to quality education or learning opportunities’ (UN, 2019: 11). Some refugees we interviewed spoke of the negative impact of not having received education themselves in Myanmar or Bangladesh; as one refugee who runs a small education programme in the camps said: ‘There are so many registered camps in Bangladesh, the people who were living in Bangladesh before they have already destroyed their lives because they didn’t have education … If they live in camp for a long time they won’t have access to education and their community will be destroyed, even those who were educated will forget what they knew before’. Refugees linked education to a better future, power, livelihoods and hope: ‘the most important asset is education, if you are educated you can do anything’ and ‘we understand that education is power in our life. We want to give higher education to our children to build their lives’. Previous research on refugee livelihoods (Barbelet and Wake, 2017) illustrated the difficult trade-offs many refugees must make when living in protracted displacement. This study supports this, suggesting Humanitarian Policy Group 13