Purpose: The article unpacks potentials of and resistance towards facilitating meetings between refugee and non-refugee youth in global citizenship education. Design/methodology/approach: The analyses are based on participant observation in a school-based intervention in three locations, developed on the principles of design-based research DBR. Findings: The article exposes both how meetings between students could be deeply educational and how teachers prevent meaningful interaction between students out of concern for refugee students. Research limitations/implications: More research is needed on how students care for themselves and others in transformational learning contexts. Practical implications: Privileged teachers’ concern for retraumatising students can veil unconscious protection of the privileged self against students’ trauma and should therefore be subject to critical reflection.