Current movements of forced migration to the European Union resulting from global crises and conflicts, e.g. the war in Ukraine, pose major challenges to schools in many European countries: As cross-border educational trajectories irritate the (still) primarily nation-state oriented school systems, students moving between school systems are likely to experience exclusion and marginalization (Massumi 2019). This applies in particular to students who have experienced forced migration (Schroeder/Seukwa 2018; Subasi Singh/Jovanović/Proyer 2023; Thoma/Langer 2022).

Although in Germany, as in other European countries, the presence of refugee students in the education system is not a new phenomenon, the presence of newly arrived children from war zones such as Syria and Afghanistan in the 2015/16 school year was predominantly met in the mode of “chronic surprise” (Castro Varela/Mecheril 2010: 37) in the education system. 

With regard to current forced migration movements from Ukraine, practices, policies and administrative measures taken by EU member states to ensure inclusion and educational participation of children and youth differ to some extent from those in response to other and former forced migrations (European Commission 2022a, b). In Germany, as in other EU states, new measures include efforts to reduce bureaucratic obstacles for recruiting Ukrainian teachers, as well as providing opportunities for cross-border digital distance learning based on the Ukrainian curriculum (KMK 2022). Due to EU-regulations, residence status and mobility rules are also less restrictive for (most) refugees from Ukraine than for people from other non-EU Member States seeking refuge in the EU (Council Implementing Decision 2022).  

These developments suggest that new natio-ethno-cultural demarcations are emerging in the context of the new forced migration from Ukraine to the EU, which may be linked with different opportunities and risks of educational participation for students, depending on their country of origin and (forced) migration history. Against this backdrop, we examine how schools in Germany currently respond to forced migration and which (new) forms of inclusion and exclusion are associated with this. 

In our paper, we draw on preliminary results of our ongoing qualitative study which is currently carried out in ten secondary schools in two German federal states (Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt). The study examines the approaches taken in these schools to accompany and support the educational trajectories of refugee children, against the backdrop of current political frameworks and state regulations. Moreover, it explores how (current and former) refugee movements are negotiated in schools, which practices of othering and differentiation become visible, and how education professionals reflect on diversified forms of schooling and different educational opportunities for refugee students.

In our paper, we present first findings from the analyses of guided qualitative interviews with school principals, teachers and social workers, focusing on the question of how secondary schools in Germany respond to current forced migration in the context of educational policies, and which (new) distinctions and inequalities emerge in this context. 

Following on from existing studies that have revealed various structures and practices of institutionalized discrimination along various natio-ethno-cultural demarcations in schools, resulting from institutional routines, unquestioned expectations of normality, and professional cultural knowledge (e.g. Steinbach 2015), we aim to identify (old and new) patterns of differential participation and exclusion of students and associated natio-ethno-cultural demarcations in the context of forced migration. Moreover, we aim to highlight changes in school practice that have taken place since the refugee movements to Germany in 2015/16, as well as learning processes on the side of education professionals in schools, with regard to supporting educational transitions of (diverse) refugee students.

In our ongoing qualitative study, we combine analyses of school-administrative frameworks with analyses of school practices and (experiential and interpretive) knowledge of pedagogic professionals. To examine local school practices, as well as experiential and interpretive knowledge of pedagogical professionals, we have conducted guided interviews in ten public secondary schools which have received refugee students from Ukraine in recent months. In order to shed light on educational inequalities which are rooted in the segmented school system in Germany, our sample includes both grammar schools and comprehensive schools. Taking into account that perspectives on forced migration may differ between professional positions (Tom Diek/Rosen 2023), interviews have been conducted with school principals, teachers in regular classes, German-as-a-second-language-teachers, preparatory class teachers, and social workers. The professionals’ experiential and interpretive knowledge is understood as generated by the common experiential space of the school and shaped by the "conjunctive experiential space" (Mannheim 1980) of the professional milieu, as well as by biographical experiences and current socio-political discourses. In order to gain insights into the policy frameworks and legal requirements for the schooling of refugee children and adolescents, we have analyzed selected policy documents on migration and integration, including regulations issued by education ministries and authorities in the federal states Saxony-Anhalt and Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition, guided interviews will be conducted with representatives of local school authorities to find out how current practice and changes in practice are explained, interpreted and legitimized. As part of this analytical framework, school practices and professionals’ perspectives will be related to current policy changes throughout the analyses, in order to capture the interplay of policy, pedagogical practice and professional knowledge, in which differential inclusion and exclusion of (diverse) refugee children and youth in schools take place.

Our preliminary findings suggest that school practices have not changed for all 'refugee' students, but they have instead diversified. In the interplay with school administrative regulations, various local organizational and pedagogical practices have emerged through which refugee students are grouped, distinguished from each other and/or treated differently, e.g. in terms of different access to support measures for learning the German language. As reported by the teachers interviewed, in some cases the different treatment is voiced by the students in class and leads to tensions which teachers assume are difficult to address and discuss. Furthermore, it becomes apparent that (new) distinctions result from differentiated assessments of students' performance orientation and their ascribed ambition to learn German. These assessments emerge in the context of political-administrative measures which focus on temporary, targeted language support measures for refugee students, in order to accelerate the acquisition of the German language. These measures correspond with (more general) educational policy goals of school efficiency (e.g. Gomolla 2021), while whole-school approaches to promote the participation of students with discontinuous transnational biographies (e.g. Schroeder 2018; Foitzik et al. 2019) remain marginal. While discussions of exclusion in the context of forced migration have so far focused primarily on segregated school models (e.g. Cerna 2019), our analyses suggest that patterns of differential participation and exclusion are not solely due to segregated school models. Instead, they support the finding that diverse local pedagogical practices can lead to both inclusion in exclusionary educational settings and exclusion in inclusive contexts (Terhart/von Dewitz 2018; El Mafalaani/Jording/Massumi 2021). Moreover, it seems promising to discuss differential participation in the context of forced migration more broadly, taking into account local school structures and traditions, and their interplay with school-based administrative measures, educational policies and current migration discourses.

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