Conference Programme (PDF, 1019KB) - Trinity College Dublin

abstracts by stream and session
Secondly, data show that the school staff’s representations influence the identity construction of the migrants’ children. It seems that the
representation of the educational institution influences ethnic identification. However, for avoiding a deterministic perspective, the results
show that these teenagers are active subjects in the construction of their own identity. They compose it by combining ethnic, gendered,
class and young subculture identity components.
Finally, it is unveiled that the educational institution, although it defines itself as multicultural and open to the incorporation of
differences, continues to stigmatize the children of migrants through culturalist practices. In practice, it continues to consider good
integration as assimilation into the national culture.
The Influence of the Body in Migrant and Indigenous Boys’ Interactions within the Masculine Hierarchy of the School
Lindsey Garret, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
This paper analysis data from the large Trinity Immigration ‘Learning Together Project’ to explore the impact of the body in the
development of positive and negative relationships between migrant and indigenous boys within the child world of the school. The ‘body’
refers both to the presentation of self through one’s appearance such as height, weight, clothing, ‘racialised’ characteristics such as skin
colour and physical competence/incompetence in sport and games. Thus, the active and passive functions of the body will be analysed
as bearers of social value and status within the child world of the school; spaces in which the children’s attention is primarily directed at
their peers instead of teachers or other authority figures. This paper seeks to highlight the need to understand integration beyond formal
skill attainment such as English language proficiency and emphasises the importance of understanding integration as a lived social
relation. For this purpose a Bourdieuian phenomenology of social space will be drawn upon to illuminate the impact of embodiment
agency in childhood which simultaneously influences and is shaped by micro peer exchanges and macro concepts of gender, race and
immigration.
SESSION 4e The Children and Families of Polish and Russian Immigrants
Polish migrants and their children in London: encountering schools
*Louise Ryan, Middlesex University, UK
Alessio D'Angelo, Middlesex University, UK
Magdalena Lopez- Rodriguez, Middlesex University, UK
Poland’s accession to the EU in May 2004 brought many new possibilities and opportunities for Polish migrants to Britain. In the
period from May 2004 to June 2008, over 500,000 Poles registered with the Workers Registration Scheme as employees in Britain.
One unforeseen consequence of this rapid increase in migration was the large numbers of Polish children arriving in British schools.
According to office government statistics, there are over 26,000 school pupils in England whose first language is Polish (DCFS, Schools
Census, 2008).
Schools are not only places of education but also sites of socialisation and interaction. Social norms, values and expectations are taught
and learned through both the formal and informal curriculum – in the classroom, playground and at the school gates (Adams and Kirova,
2006).
For newly arrived migrant children and their parents school may be the place where they encounter the diversity of the host society
in all its complexity and newness. While school may be regarded as a safe place of learning, it can also be daunting and confusing.
Conversations at the school gates may provide parents with a valuable opportunity to acquire new information and make friends (Ryan,
2007). However, school can also be associated with culture clashes, negative stereotypes, feelings of isolation and even racist bullying.
Thus, for newly arrived migrant children and their parents, school provides an array of opportunities and challenges.
In this paper we explore these issues drawing on our research with Polish migrants in London (Ryan et al, 2007; 2008) and on Polish
children in London primary schools (Sales, et al, 2008). Based on interviews with parents and teachers at 4 London primary schools,
as well as some additional data from Polish children, we explore processes of adaptation, accommodation, negotiation and identity
formation. In addition, we also consider the ways in which Polish migrants construct notions of Polishness in the context of education.
Children of Emigration: an exploratory study of the acculturation experience of Polish adolescents in Ireland
Beata Sokolowska, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
The paper reports first findings from an exploratory study of the acculturation experience of Polish adolescents in Ireland. The objective of
this study is to understand how Polish adolescent migrants develop ‘acculturation strategies’ of adjusting to their new situation and how
this is reflected in the unfolding of their social relations at school and in the family. It endeavours to answer the following questions: how
it is to be a Polish teenager in Ireland and how the language barrier and social expectations for smooth assimilation create distinctive
conflicts for personal and identity development. Moreover, this project includes an exploration of the perception of acculturation from
parents’ and teachers’ perspective.
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