Child migrants are one of the risk factors of the modern education system in Russia. In addition to the potential problems associated with the cultural differences between the indigenous population and migrants, there is also the problem of “closed” migrants. Often migrants and their families, including secondand third-generation migrants, form isolated communities within which the adaptation and socialization of new migrants and the generation of youth takes place. On the one hand, these groups play the role of “softadaptation”, when migrants and their children are offered the tested models of behavior in the new conditions of life. On the other hand, not all the models proposed by the group can be acceptable by the traditions of the indigenous population, and sometimes they are opposed to the culture and traditions of the host country. Moreover, the views accepted in the group can cause morbid socialization of migrants. Under these conditions, the school has a task of preventing the negative impact of the isolated national groups on the younger generation. The purpose of the study is to analyze the account of migrant children in social networks in order to identify signs of socio-psychological and cultural adaptation, to determine the influence of national groups and communities in social networks on the formation of a person’s personality. The paper covers the reactions of children to publications on the topic of interethnic communication. It also includes recommendations to teachers on the definition of exposure to the influence of groups and communities in the social networks of migrant children.

The situation of children from a migration background in Polish dormitories and boarding schools is analysed herein. It is an emerging issue, practically absent in child studies in Poland. The author refers to research that is a part of MiCreate (Migrant Children and Communities in Transforming Europe) and demonstrates that despite the growing presence of migrant children in dormitories, they are invisible within the education system. The legal gaps in regulations applying to these children as residents of dormitories are explored herein, and integrative measures are analysed to find the possible causes of their ineffectiveness. The research was conducted in a dormitory in the city of Kraków. It included interviews with the institution’s staff, participatory observations and autobiographical narrative interviews with students. This article may inspire further large-scale research into the problems of migrant children being present and living in such dormitories.

Poland has been becoming a migrant country over the past years, experiencing recently increased visibility of migrant children at schools. At the same time, the issue of their support and integration remains on the margin of educational policy and depends on the activity of local authorities and, above all, of school head-teachers and teachers. Drawing on the qualitative study carried out in 2020 within the project CHILD-UP Children Hybrid Integration: Learning Dialogue as a way of Upgrading Policies of Participation (Horizon 2020) in schools in Kraków and South-East Poland (where one of the centres for foreigners is located), this article comprises a discussion on the extent to which Polish schools are ready to accept migrant (including refugee) children, to enhance their agency and support integration processes. Therefore, it raises a question whether schools are able to effectively support migrant children linguistically as well as help them enter into peer groups in the course of their educational activities.

This article discusses reflections on doing research with and about migrant children, focusing on addressing “race” and racialization processes as well as integrationist implications of “doing good” among both school professionals and researchers. The motivation is to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how to research integration while also promoting a child-centred approach and taking children’s own understandings and opinions into account. Written at the threshold of the phase of analysing data from fieldwork with children, which is one of the main analytical tasks in the MiCREATE project, this article is a summary of some focus points and concepts that turned out to be of importance during the ongoing epistemic reflexivity process in the research project. Taking a point of departure in general methodological reflections on a structuralist-constructivist approach and on constant epistemic reflexivity, three approaches that could be useful in reflections and analyses are suggested: reflections on the concept of integration, on race and diversity, and on researcher positioning within a research project both while studying practices of “doing good” and aiming at “doing good” in itself as well.