As economic, social, and political changes cause individuals to migrate to new spaces, children become the most at-risk group (Giavrimis, Konstantinou and Hatzichristou, 2003). Traumatic experiences resulting from migration can be unsettling for children (Uğurlu, 2018). Education is particularly important for children since schools are fundamental tools for children to integrate into their new lives (Giavrimis et al., 2003). With education, immigrant children make gains regarding acculturation and development. Educational institutions are meeting places where immigrants are embraced by parents, students, and school administrations (Çakırer Özservet, 2015). Besides helping immigrant children to adapt to new conditions, education is an efficient way to keep them away from problems such as violence, child marriage, and sexual abuse (Uğurlu, 2018; Adak, 2009). Migrant children away from school may also join extremist groups (Watkins and Zyck, 2014).

Immigrant students experience other problems compared to native students. Language barriers, differences in knowledge levels, cultural barriers (Roxas, 2011; Green, 2003), lack of one parent, financial hardships, taking care of younger siblings (Free, Kriz and Konecnik, 2014), poverty, accommodation, problems with access to transportation and health care (Cobb-Clark, Sinning, and Stillman, 2012; Johnson, 1987), insufficient school supplies, teachers’ deficiencies in educating immigrant children  (Hamilton, 2004; Szente, Hoot and Taylor,  2006),  legal status obstacles (Free et al., 2014), alienation by classmates (Raabe, 2018) are some of these. According to Bucak and Erginer (2021), parents expect understanding attitudes towards themselves and their children from administrations and demand actions ensuring the integration of refugee children besides financial assistance to meet school needs.

Some policies and strategies are developed, and new units are opened for the education and integration of immigrant students in the EU countries and Turkey (Gencer, 2017; Çakırer Özservet, 2015). Despite initiatives such as EU-funded grants in Turkey for in-service training and seminars for administrators and teachers and educational activities for students (Akalın, 2016; Börü and Boyacı, 2016), some problems persist. Expectations for solving problems vary. Administrators and teachers believe that providing language support to immigrant students and families, supplying them with course equipment (Eren, 2019), encouraging parents to participate effectively in the process, providing support to students, and funds by the state (Sakız, 2016) can reduce problems. Integration programs in the first school week for refugee students are another teacher's expectation (Avcı, 2019). Assistance by interpreters or guides during school registration, providing Turkish courses, and addressing school needs are among other expectations (Sarıahmetoğlu and Kamer, 2020). Immigrant students expect to be understood by teachers and supported with additional courses, not face discrimination, be accepted to games of their peers, and spend time with them out of school (Topal and Sağır, 2021).

Immigrant students and their parents are exposed to discrimination in various ways. According to Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clarke, and Curran (2004), teachers view different ethnic group students irrelevant because they think these students are poor and uneducated, and they avoid communication. Şahin (2010) states that teachers' discriminatory behaviour towards immigrant students and not supporting them adequately creates a sense of discrimination in children, which leads immigrant children to move away from school in Turkey. Keskin (2011) indicates the failures of migrant students in Germany stem from teachers’ having less confidence and not encouraging them, and although equally successful, their being graded lower than other students.

Schools are vital in supporting the acculturation and psychosocial needs of refugee students. This study will provide recommendations to facilitate the adaptation of refugee students to their education systems and improve their learning outcomes by uncovering unknown facts other than known school-based facts.

To increase the body of research in this area, this paper will provide an analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. The first phase of the study will be structured as a quantitative study. It will consists of survey results from 100 voluntary refugee students attending secondary schools in Ankara. In the survey answers to the following questions will be sought. 1. What problems do migrant children encounter in integration to education system in EU countries and Turkey? 2. What are the expectations of school administrators, teachers, students, and parents about facilitating the school adjustment process? 3. What are the issues that could facilitate the integration process of migrant children to school but could not/do not get addressed by the stakeholders? The second phase of the study will be structured as a qualitative study and will consists of a video library of 3 school principals, 3 teachers 3 refugee and 3 local students and 6 parents outlining their stories working and learning in a multicultural education settings. This phase will include developing and agreeing a storytelling protocol by the participating schools. A series of qualitative guideline-based interviews (video-recorded-excluding refugee students and their parents) will be conducted in each school. The quantitative data will be analyzed through descriptive statistical analysis techniques. The data collected by interviews will be analyzed through qualitative content analysis.

This paper presents and discusses various strategies for creating a safe and secure learning environment where refugee and native students can work and learn together. Although many strategies have been developed to help refugee students integrate into the education system at the national and school levels, they cannot be said to be very effective. Many school-age students cannot be enrolled, and those who attend school face serious problems, such as failure, absenteeism, and dropping out. Refugee students have a distinct experience from local children in many ways, not least in their experiences of trauma and family separations, and the disruptions to their schooling. The existing literature supports these differences in showing that refugee students experience greater psychological and socio-cultural adaptation difficulties than local students. The study's preliminary findings suggest that a comprehensive investigation is needed to determine which school factors are associated with positive or negative outcomes in the defined group of refugee students, ideally in the interrelated areas of mental health, well-being, and acculturation.

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