The Burden of Difference? School Welfare Personnel’s and Parents’ Views on Wellbeing of Migrant Children in Finland

Authors

• Minna Säävälä

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23979/fypr.45073

Keywords:

migrants, wellbeing, school, family, bullying, home-school interaction, social exclusion

Abstract

The school welfare system faces a challenge in the linguistically and culturally
diversifying school. This article examines how school welfare personnel, native
language teachers, and migrant parents conceptualize the wellbeing of migrant children
in Finland. The data analyzed by thematic content analysis consists of group and
individual interviews of a total of 47 persons: nurses, psychologists, social workers,
a headmaster, special education teachers, native language teachers, and migrant
parents in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The school welfare professionals and
migrant parents views stressed different factors as risks and resources of migrant
childrens wellbeing. In school welfare personnels view, school wellbeing is secured by
downplaying difference between children of diverse cultural backgrounds; moreover,
they do not see negative attitudes, discrimination, or bullying of migrant children as
a particular problem. Migrant parents and native language teachers in turn consider
or at least fear their childrens wellbeing to be jeopardized by social exclusion,
prejudice or discrimination. The school personnel find it difficult to recognize the
power imbalance between minorities and the national majority that lies behind these
different conceptualizations. This reduces trust and impedes the cooperation of migrant
homes and school, particularly in situations when an intervention is imperative for
securing child wellbeing.