‘Everybody is Available to Them’: Support Measures for Migrant Students in Irish Secondary Schools

Abstrat 
Migration to Ireland is continuing, albeit at a much slower pace, and migrant children continue to have a strong presence in Irish schools. How well these students integrate into the Irish education system depends, at least partially, on the support measures the schools have put in place for them. This article draws on the results of a large-scale empirical study on academic and social support measures available in Irish secondary schools, and contributes to the debate on challenges, in terms of inclusivity, posed by immigration into Ireland. The article discusses approaches taken at government and school level in addressing the needs of new arrivals, offering a comparative perspective of various support models in the EU. While there is a growing body of research on the experiences of migrant children and young people in schools, few previous studies have drawn on a nationally representative data set and focused specifically on the support measures migrant students can have access to.

Abstract 

Migration to Ireland is continuing, albeit at a much slower pace, and migrant children continue to have a strong presence in Irish schools. How well these students integrate into the Irish education system depends, at least partially, on the support measures the schools have put in place for them. This article draws on the results of a large-scale empirical study on academic and social support measures available in Irish secondary schools, and contributes to the debate on challenges, in terms of inclusivity, posed by immigration into Ireland. The article discusses approaches taken at government and school level in addressing the needs of new arrivals, offering a comparative perspective of various support models in the EU. While there is a growing body of research on the experiences of migrant children and young people in schools, few previous studies have drawn on a nationally representative data set and focused specifically on the support measures migrant students can have access to.

Source: British Journal of Educational Studies, first published online 8 June 2015

Author(s):Daniel Faas, Beata Sokolowska and Merike Darmody
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Online
Publication Date:08 Jun 2015
URL:http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00071005.2015.1049974
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