Aktualne problemy integracji szkolnej dzieci imigrantów w państwach Unii Europejskiej

Abstract

The escalating immigration processes in the united Europe force the individual states, as well as the authorities of the European Union, to create conditions for foreigners to integrate with the local population. An important role in this is played by the school. However, there is a great differentiation with regard to the progress of the school integration processes and the forms of school operation. The differentiation is to a certain degree a result of legal discrepancies, or actually lack of legislation in this matter in some countries. The countries of the former “fifteen” have certain experience and achievements in this field, whereas in the newly admitted countries, these processes are at an initial stage, although some of them, such as the Czech Republic, Estonia, and Latvia, have noted some clear accomplishments. There are some common and tried forms of school integration. Firstly, teaching the official language constitutes the pivotal point of the whole process, secondly, teaching the mother language is supposed to constitute a cultural bridge. Development of the native language and culture is important also from the perspective of the possible return of the immigrants to their homelands. The fundamental integration is to be achieved through modification of the curricula and introducing multicultural aspects in them, and changes in the teacher training programs. Integration means also proper organization of the school life, taking into consideration the cultural variety of the pupils. All of that requires adequate resources which lie in the hands of the central or local governments. The amount of those resources is not always sufficient, which determines the efficiency of the measures taken. In Poland, due to the fact that the percentage of immigrants is minor, the problem does not exist yet and broader measures are not taken, except for introducing multicultural aspects in the teaching of certain subjects.