I watched them playing and speaking a language that I didn't take in: Otherness and children with migration experience
Abstract
In this article, we aim to present the experiences of pupils with the perception of otherness in the classroom. Speciϐically, we will focus on understanding the experience of 1.5 generation of young immigrants from Ukraine.
Our respondents, currently young adults, reϐlect in the interviews their experience of integrating into the Czech society. For the article we focus on their early school experiences.
The research is based on interviews with four respondents, who were young people aged 24-29 living in the Czech Republic who moved to the Czech Republic from Ukraine aged 6 to 9 years. The interviews were analyzed using a thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
The aim of the presented text is a detailed analysis of the experiences with socialization at secondary school with an emphasis on the formation of otherness and sameness in the peer group. The analysis corresponds with the time axis of gradual integration into the Czech society from the initial "crash" to mastering and dealing with the demands of the personal situation.
We will focus on the identiϐied aspects of this process and the coping strategies. The rich data from the interviews show how the (non) knowledge of language is inϐluential in the construction of otherness and, as with our respondents, even the relatively short period of time required to master local language, brings with it emotionally demanding experiences of exclusion from the group, isolation.
In the classroom, these children were often mocked and even their intelligence belittled due to imperfect knowledge of the language. Interviews show that teachers rarely intervened, even though they could at least mitigate the negative development if not completely prevent some of the behaviors.
After acquiring host country language it has been easier for the newcomers to build relationships with peers. We observe the desire to emphasize the sameness, and the strategy of inclusion through the repertoire of own qualities.
As the most successful and in principle expected in the Czech education seems to be the strategy of assimilation, i.e. merging with the majority (Berry et al., 2002). The constant adaptation and re-adaptation of migrant children is a kind of basis for their day-to-day interactions.