Inclusion of immigrant children

Abstract

The Middle East and sub‐Saharan African countries have been suffering by wars during last few years and therefore Europe meets new challenges that are caused by new waves of refugees, which are crossing the boarders of Europe every day. Majority of migrants is consisting of young or more than young people, forced to abandon their own homes, their own cities, their own schools. Although this could look like talking about individual dramas, abandoning schools and depriving a whole generation of education means, really, prejudicing the future of the whole society and prejudicing the future of the countries of origin, which would be deprived of potential future productive and managerial classes. In addition, it also means compromising the future of host countries, for which the presence of new immigrants would only be a problem to handle, rather than an opportunity for growth and development. Although there is no simple way to manage migrant’s inflows, the importance of designing policies that favor their integration from the very beginning is amply recognized by international organizations (e.g. OECD, UNHCR). Refugee inflows can bring benefits to the economies and societies of developed countries if inclusion policies are well designed and effectively implemented. A transformation could become a great opportunity for growth and development for the whole EU but it needs quick social inclusion processes involving both labor market and education system. Educational and training systems are therefore central on transformation of European society but, right for this reason, they need to be re‐project and focused on a multicultural society. This means that we need to consider a multicultural educative approach in order to reduce difficulties on training and facilitate social and economic integration processes.