Partnerships between schools and out-of-school, private, and civil society actors have been gaining importance for some time and are supported by educational policy reforms and funding programs. Expectations for such partnerships are high. They range from better support for children and youth to strengthening the regional educational infrastructure and modernizing education and learning processes. However, such far-reaching and desirable outcomes are often based on specific conditions such as trusting, reciprocity-oriented social relations.

Therefore, there are some serious limitations to overcome when working together in partnerships, particularly in partnerships between organizations. According to social capital approaches (Putnam 1993, Coleman 1988), building partnerships is based on intensive interactions and a constant investment is necessary to maintain the supportive and useful character of such relations, networks, and communities. In particular, restrictions in the autonomy and equality of those involved and in the expectation of reciprocity reduce the beneficial potential of social relationships and social networks or change their character. This is particularly important because equality and autonomy are important prerequisites for a partnership. Thus, the network becomes a negotiating network that can also lead to the development of an (in)formal rule set to prevent the emergence of negative externalities such as mistrust or the exploitation of specific actors (Dhillon 2009). However, this makes partnerships and networks more exclusive, which makes it difficult to accept or work together with new partners.

This paper looks at the specific case of the so-called "Summer of Welcoming" in Germany in 2015 and 2016, when not only the number of volunteers supporting refugees increased significantly (Ahrens 2017), but many new private initiatives and local support centers were built as well. As available surveys show, the focus of the volunteers' work with the migrants and refugees was in the area of education. They organized language courses and leisure activities, offered extra lessons, or helped in finding training opportunities. Many initiatives and volunteers worked together with schools, or schools themselves initiated projects with volunteers.

Given that, the paper discusses the following questions: Did schools extend their existing partnership networks in a time when newly immigrated children and youth were in particular need of support or did they rely on the already established partnerships? Did the potential risks of such partnerships become more visible at such times?

The analysis is based on the data of an online survey of school principals of lower secondary schools from four German federal states, which was conducted by the German Youth Institute during the summer of 2017. It is a multi-thematic survey, which also includes questions about partnerships with initiatives, organizations and administrative services working for and with migrants and refugees. From the 557 school principals participating in the survey, only 468 were responsible for schools that had accepted newly arrived students since the 2015/2016 school year. 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 who were working with migrants and refugees. Several multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate the changes in partnerships during the “Summer of Welcoming”, particularly concerning the intensification of existing partnerships and the acquisition of new partners, as well as which contributions volunteers and initiatives made within schools.

First, the findings show that schools worked together with a number of local agencies and organizations. In addition to the cooperation with the local coordination centers, voluntary initiatives working for migrants and refugees were the most important contacts for schools. However, only around every fifth headmaster stated that their school also worked with new partners in the course of accepting new immigrant students. A roughly equal proportion of schools that work with partners intensified this contact, but no new partnerships were established. In two thirds of all schools, there was no change within the partnership network. Schools ensured that an existing partnership network remained open for new partners, but also that such changes did not jeopardize existing partnerships by provoking typical conflicts such as a loss of trust. That schools seem to be well aware of this potential risk is suggested by both the reliance of the majority of schools on existing partnership networks to support newly admitted students, as well as the fact that schools located in urban areas invested additional financial resources in existing partnerships.

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