Social and Academic Preferences of Migrant Students in a Secondary School: The View from Within
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62695/ZFUZ9201Keywords:
Migrant students, Secondary schools, Integration, SportsAbstract
This paper studies perceptions of migrant students from one particular cohort attending a Maltese state school. The students, whose parents are all migrants, come from different backgrounds and cultures. Informal conversations were held and data gathered was collated with participant observation. The results show that when migrant students are small in number, irrespective of whether they had been born in Malta or abroad, they did not find difficulties to integrate with their peers. Such integration depended also on the work carried out by the teachers and learning support educators whose work is indispensable to make them feel academically integrated. Sports is a good medium to socially integrate these students, irrespective of gender. National policies are important but success finally lies in the individual approach taken by the school.
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