Even if both the convention of Right of the Child (CRC) and the 2030 Agenda guarantee the rights of all children to education, migrant minors are a child group at risk of being left behind in Europe. One reason of this dramatic situation is the fact that the rights of the migrant children is often in conflict with the right of European democracies to regulate their state territories and to limit migration ( Benhabib 2004a, 2004b, Thorburn Stern 2018, 2019a, 2019b,  Francia & Edling 2020, Francia, Neubauer & Edling 2021).

In addition, the co-existence of the discourse of migrant children as global rights holders  with the discourse of migrant children as foreign citizens in political and legal documents difficults the enactment of the CRC at EU-state contexts. (Francia & Edling 2020; Francia, Neubauer & Edling 2021).

Starting from Social Representation Theory (Moscovici 1984, 2000, 20021, Jodelet 1989, Gilly 1989) this research offers new knowledge on the right of migrant children, by analysing and comparing how social representations of migrant children are presented in Spanish and Swedish media before and during the Covid Global pandemic. It aims even to discuss in particularly the implications of social representations in media for migrant children rights to and in education during times of global pandemic.

With these purposes this study starts from the following research questions:

• Which kind of social representations of migrant children are present in the analysed media articles during the two selected period of times?
• Which kind of social representations of migrant children’s rights are present in the analysed media articles during the two selected period of times?
• Which implications do these social representations have for the enactment of the CRC:s rights and of the Agenda 2030:s goals in the two selected countries? 

Based on Social representation theory (Moscovici 1984, 2000, 2001, Jodelet 1989, Gilly 1989), this research considers social representations are values, norms and knowledge systems that enable individuals to orientate themselves and to act in a the complex globalised world.  In agree with Jodelet (1989) we argue that social representations are communicated  through words and images in the analysed media.

Based on a comparative research design ( Bray, Adamson and Mason 2007) of two EU-states, the analysis of media representations on migrant children can contribute to develop new knowledge on migrant children’s as right holders in Europe in time of global pandemic. It can contribute to offer in particuarly new scientific knowledge about the negotiation of the right to and in education in times of global pandemic in Europe.

Based on comparative qualitative research design (Bray, Adamson and Mason 2007) this research uses content analysis of printed and digital editorial media articles published during the period 2020-03-30 to 2022-01-23. These two countries were selected because they represent two different models of welfare societies in the European Union context, the Mediterranean and the Nordic welfare models. The selected articles are retrieved from the Nordic database Mediearkivet and from the Spanish database Hemeroteca Digital. These databases include news from printed and digital editorial media as well as radio and tv. Using the key words “ migrant children”, “children with foreign backgrounds” , "unaccompanied minors" in Spanish and Swedish, 149 news were found before March 2020 . Moreover 85 articles were analysed during the second period. The empirical material was analysed using Content Analysis . As a result of this content analysis a matrix of categories has been designed by three dimensions, based on what social representations is present in the selected media: migrant children as victims, migrant children as executioners and migrant children as redeemers.

This study shows how most of these analysed media articles describe migrant children as victims of wars, inappropriate migration policies and exploitation networks. In second term, they are represented as redeemers in policies in favour of children, where acts of charity. were included. On a few occasions, migrant children are associated with illegal activities and terrorism. Furthermore, this contribution shows how social representations of migrant children can be used by media as an interpretation system to manage the contradiction of migration and education policies in relation to migrant children’s rights in Spain and Sweden This research shows that presence of migrant children in media has decreased significantly during the analysed period after the start of the global pandemic. Consequently, migrant children’s’ life situation as well as their rights have been invisible since the global pandemic. For this reasons, the educative community should assume an approach committed to children rights and human dignity. This paradigmatic change should allow to society to participate actively in this fight.

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