Educational Support for Students with a Migration Background in Romania and Italy: A Comparative Perspective

Nicoleta-Laura Popa, Rosita DeLuigi

In the last decades, migration flows produced different effects for Romania and Italy: while Romania became one of the main European emigration countries, Italy received large immigrant stocks mainly from Eastern European, North-African and Latin American countries. Although the migration frameworks in the two countries are different, educational challenges are to some point similar, and it is our belief that important lessons are to be learnt from mutual knowledge sharing and comparative approaches. The present contribution briefly describes available educational support for students with a migration background (In the Green Paper Migration and Mobility: Challenges and Opportunities for EU Education Systems, prepared by the Directorate-General for Education and Culture of European Commission in 2008 there are several terms referring to migrant children introduced as synonyms, such as “children from a migrant background”, “children of migrants” or “migrant pupils”, all of them defined as “the children of all persons living in an EU country where they were not born, irrespective of whether they are third country nationals, citizens of another EU Member State or subsequently became nationals of the host Member State” [2008, p. 3]. In the Romanian case, the situation of returned migrant children should be considered carefully, as some of them were born or educated since the beginning of their school life in the destination country, and may face barriers towards social and educational inclusion in their “home” country.) in Romania and Italy, within the larger European effort to support social and school inclusion, and also emphasize the need for more information exchange. To a certain extent, educational effects of migration flows have been under anticipated at the European level and professionals in the field should invest more in comparative approaches, but also in investigations of results and outcomes of specific measures through in-depth analysis.

students with a migration background, educational support, Romania, Italy

NICOLETA-LAURA POPA – Associate professor, PhD, Facultyof Psychologyand Educational Sciences, „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi. Visiting Scholar Progetto „Collegio Matteo Ricci”, University of Macerata. E-mail: nicoleta.laura.popa@uaic.ro
ROSITA DELUIGI – Researcher, PhD, Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism, University of Macerata. E-mail: rosita.deluigi@unimc.it

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