Education is the main vehicle for assisting marginalized communities, such as refugees, to build connections with the wider community.  Education provides critical opportunities for initiating and maintaining friendships among refugee and local student communities. Refugees’ everyday experiences and social processes at school mirror the degree of belonging and social cohesion, built within the local community.  A small scale research was conducted to 21 students from Skaramagas Refugee Hospitality Center to investigate the number and type of friendships formed through educational experiences, including friendships with refugees/migrants from other countries, as well as native peers. Certain sociological factors, such as gender, country of origin, age, school attendance and duration of stay in Greece, were examined in relation to friendship in refugee teenagers’ lives. The study was conducted, after legal permission,  through semi-constructed interviews with the students at the Hospitality Center, with the assistance of interpreters and followed the ‘do no harm’ ethical principles in research. The results indicate the positive impact of school attendance on relational inclusion and widening friendship circles. Only children attending mainstream formal education outside the Center made friendships with native children and all children who reported having no friends were not registered in mainstream schools. Gender was another factor signifying differentiation in refugee friendship patterns, with girls appearing more likely to limit their circles to one friend of the same nationality.

A discussion follows about the importance of a supportive school environment and educational, child-centered approaches  to refugee students’ inclusion, by validating student experiences. The newly-introduced ‘Skills Workshops’ in Greek formal education aim at developing team-building, cultivating empathy, building diversity inclusion capabilities, which are essential in the formation of healthy, intercultural peer relations, based on mutual respect. The article presents the implementation of a specific example of  Skills’ Workshops to a multicultural class of refugees and migrants, aiming at combatting xenophobia and promoting acceptance. The workshop follows a three-pillar structure, aiming at creating a caring school community, that consistently and effectively implements a non-racist, inclusive approach, where all students are encouraged to build friendships and appreciate diversity.

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