The scoping review aims at mapping, exploring and discussing what do we know and how do we know about the nexus of the referral process and unjustified disproportionality of migrant children in special education provisions. Deploying inclusion criteria on initially identified 1786 qualitative records, elicited 12 relevant studies. The most salient explanations are constructed as a conflation of: (a) language, culture and poor educational background as barriers, reflecting migrant families' collective features; (b) timing of initiating the referral process, deficit-view, the lack of cooperation and the lack of competence among the professionals, reflecting enactment features. A call for professional development, more collaboration and recognition and use of first-language as an asset are among the most purported suggestions and recommendations to improve the referral process and diminish unjustified disproportionality. The main conclusion is: In the referral process, migrant children are from the outset facing not just an ambiguous programme for determining a high-incident disability, poorly trained professionals, the absence of safeguards and clear accountability policy, but also a pre-constructed meaning of themselves and their families as socially marginalised, culturally and linguistically different, holding few assets.