Immigration, education and insecuritisation. School principals’ small stories on national immigration and integration policies

ABSTRACT

International migration in general and the recent refugee crisis in particular are complex and much debated topics in European politics. Concurrently, education systems must operate under uncertain and unpredictable conditions. In this situation, migrant children become a group at particular educational risk of exclusion and marginalisation. This paper explores reflections of principals of schools with migrant students regarding how to navigate in those uncertainties related to how migrants are received in Denmark and whether current Danish policies on migration and integration affect the everyday practices in education. Thus, the paper looks at how problematisation and insecuritisation processes stemming from current immigration and integration policies in Denmark influence professionals’ working conditions in the field of education. Drawing on methodological perspectives from narrative theory, a selection of five out of 15 interviews with school principals are analysed, focusing on their small stories about approaching the complex processes of risk production when providing education for migrant children. The conclusion drawn from the study is that immigration and integration policies that do not stem from the field of education still influence the field of education in a way that creates complex dilemmas for school professionals when navigating in the (co-)production of risks.

KEYWORDS:

• Education of migrant children
• school principals
• insecuritisation
• narrative analysis
• small stories

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Part of the project consists of studies of reception communities’ “destination effects” on migrant children in various EU countries, including Denmark, regarding national government policies and integration initiatives, best practices in schools and political, media and public attitudes towards migration. As part of this substudy, the analysis of interviews informs a more general discussion about the political discourse and the ideological framework in which the interviews are situated, while also illuminating current challenges in elementary school practice. The project encompasses similar case studies from Austria, Denmark, Poland, Slovenia, and Spain; however, in the present paper, we present findings from the Danish context.

2. In this section, we draw in part on the analyses of Hobel, Høegh, Jacobsen, Piekut, and Jensen (2019).

3. The principal here was referring to the far-right politician Rasmus Paludan in his attempt to deport all Muslims from Denmark. A polarising figure at the time of the interviews (spring of 2019), he extensively promoted himself via YouTube videos that were followed by many children and adolescents.

Additional information

Funding

Funding This work was supported by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 822664.

Notes on contributors

Gro Hellesdatter Jacobsen

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Gro Hellesdatter Jacobsen is Associate Professor at the Department for the Study of Culture at University of Southern Denmark. Among her research interests are ethnic minority children in school, pedagogics, Bildung, and multicultural education.

Anke Piekut

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Anke Piekut is an associate professor at the Department for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark. Her main research interest is the study of narratives in and about education, studies in ethnicity, migration and education and the use of narrative and narrative inquiry in educational settings.