Abstract
Migration is today an important, dynamic, and complicated global phenomenon that is fundamentally impacting every aspect of society including their education policies. According to Berry (2001), the social sciences have an important role to play in identifying the effects of various factors on the process of migration and the integration of immigrants.
These issues are typically addressed most in the fields which focus primarily on the migration of adult populations. However, an important role should also be played now and in the future by teachers and psychologists, who should add their voices to the discussion in reference to the ever growing importance of integrating the children of immigrants into the host societies through the local education system.
Because of the multifaceted nature of this phenomenon (Drbohlav and Uherek 2007), education research must grasp it in all its interdisciplinary diversity and take into account findings from studies in other academic fields that have long been dealing with the issue. Consequently the book has a large theoretical section that explores the issue of migration from that various angles that have been addressed in interdisciplinary research performed to date, and attempts to proceed from more general issues to specific themes connected with the spatial aspects of migration and the integration of foreign nationals into majority society.
The book focuses first on the different migration experiences of countries in the West which provide a more general frame for integration topics, where the various factors of the successful integration or, conversely, the segregation of migrants are examined. The empirical chapters focus on the potential impact of the spatial concentration of migrant-students (and their potential segregation as a consequence) and of household characteristics on the students' academic performance.