Children Hybrid Integration: Learning Dialogue as a way of Upgrading Policies of Participation

CHILD-UP researches the social conditions of migrant children’s integration through social participation, taking in primary account gender differences, legal status and age groups, with the final aim to propose an innovative approach to understand and transform their social condition. First specific objective is providing an European overview, collection of data and evaluation concerning children’s conditions of living, protection and education. In selected contexts in seven countries, the research focuses on: (1) policies and practices of integration in schools, reception centres, social services and communities; (2) children’s and parents’ experiences, perceptions and expectations of integration; (3) specific practices of language teaching, facilitation of dialogue, intercultural education and mediation. Second objective is providing support for migrant children’s exercise of agency in changing their own conditions of integration and constructing hybrid identities. This objective can be achieved through the promotion of a dialogic system of practices, in schools and in their relations with partners (social services, reception centres, education and mediation agencies) and families. The project provides: (1) guidelines for dialogic activities in schools; (2) written and online training packages for teachers and other professionals; (3) a package for self-evaluation of activities. These tools will support co-action of teachers and other professionals, and coordinated planning between schools and their partners. Third objective is informing policies at the local, national and European level through dissemination and exploitation of research outcomes and tools. This objective can be achieved through the collaboration of three consortium partners, international and local stakeholder committees, and the implementation of an online portal containing a web platform conceived as a moderated wiki space and a digital archive hosting research materials and tools.

Integrating migrant children requires innovative approaches to understand and transform the children's social and personal life. The EU-funded CHILD-UP project (€ 2,999,783,25) analyses migrant children’s active participation in changing their social and cultural well-being at school, avoiding a passive assimilation to existing socio-cultural contexts.