In 2015 and 2016, round about one million people came to Germany; most of them were fleeing the war zones of the Middle East and Africa, seeking asylum in Germany. The figures of the Federal Office of Migration and Refugees for 2016 show that over a third of asylum seekers were under 18 years old. Every fifth asylum seeker was a school-aged child (Federal Office of Migration and Refugees 2016, p. 7).

Since this so called "Summer of Welcoming" four years ago, there has been a significant increase in volunteer work dedicated to supporting refugees in Germany. Already in November 2015, almost 11% of the adult population volunteered for refugees (Ahrens 2017). For many of these volunteers, this is the first time they have assisted migrants and refugees. Their help has continued longer than expected, also because they want to send a political signal against the growing racism and nationalism in the country. Available surveys show that the focus of the volunteers' work with the migrants and refugees is in the area of education. They organize language courses and leisure activities, offer extra lessons, or help in finding training opportunities. Many initiatives and volunteers work together with schools; schools also initiate projects with volunteers, but with their students and parents, too.

The educational work of volunteers is considered to be an effective support for children and youth, above all because, in addition to supporting the learning of a language and the transmission of cultural knowledge, it builds positive and powerful social relationships. In line with Robert Putnam (1993), a distinction can be made between close social contacts (social bonds), relationships with other social members (social bridges) and relationships with state institutions (social links). Volunteers can be seen as mediators for each of these social relationships. With regard to the work of James Coleman, it can also be assumed that social capital supports the educational success of students (Coleman 1988). At the same time, Coleman has drawn attention to the public-good character of social capital (ibid. pp. 166ff.). Social capital can lose its power very easily in the case of negative externalities such as the mistrust or exploitation by specific actors. Such concerns have also been addressed in the context of recent volunteer work for refugees. In the context of welfare state cutbacks, volunteers seem to fill the gap for the actually needed professionals. In this sense, volunteers contribute with their work to de-professionalization. Furthermore, there are doubts about the quality of work provided by non-trained volunteers (van Dyke & Misbach 2016, Kleist 2017).

This paper looks at the impact that the cooperation between Schools and Volunteers is making on the social integration of newly arrived students. Given the actual findings and discussions, the main question is: Can volunteers, initiatives or involved students and parents play the role of a social mediator?

The analyses are based on the data from a survey of school principals, which was conducted as an online-survey of 557 secondary schools in four German Länder in the summer of 2017. Participating in the survey were 468 principals of schools that had accepted newly arrived students since 2015. Two thirds of the schools had accepted newly arrived students already before the 2015/2016 school year. Most schools (70%) are All-day-schools. Both are associated with a larger net of relations with out-of-school stakeholders. The survey looked at the established as well as the newly-founded relationships between schools and out-of-school partners, especially with volunteers and initiatives that are working with migrants and refugees. In addition, there is information about the support of newly arrived students by classmates as well as the parents of newly arrived children and youth. Regression analyzes are used to investigate the conditions under which schools were able to attract new cooperation partners and volunteers, what contribution volunteers and initiatives make within schools, and whether or not their participations and contributions have had an impact on the social relations and learning performance of the newly arrived students.

First of all, the findings show that schools could benefit from both their already established network of partners as well as the increase of volunteer work dedicated to refugees and migrants, certainly through the gain of new volunteers and cooperation partners. Schools that have been successful in attracting more volunteers offer both a wider range of extra-curricular learning opportunities as well as social support offerings. This could be seen as a sign for instrumentalization of volunteers or de-professionalization within the school. However, schools also gained additional teachers and educators. Looking at the additional offerings, it becomes clear, that these offerings, often provided by volunteers, function as a social bridge and a social link for the integration of the newly arrived students. From the perspective of the school principals, the involvement of volunteers and refugee initiatives, but also of classmates und newly arrived parents, especially supports the social integration and partly reduces many learning problems.

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