The growing proportion of migrant youth in European educational institutions represents one of the key challenges of contemporary multicultural societies. The ethnic, linguistic, and cultural heterogeneity that migrant learners bring into classrooms requires educational systems not only to ensure equal access to education, but also to actively create conditions for their successful integration into the host country. Schools thus become a key environment in which processes of socialisation, the formation of belonging, the learning of the host-country language, and the development of social and cultural competences take place. Despite the growing social and scholarly interest in the integration of migrant youth, academic research in this field remains fragmented. Existing studies predominantly focus on individual indicators of integration (e.g. academic achievement, proficiency in the host-country language, psychological well-being), while rarely examining the interplay of factors at the individual, institutional, and structural levels, or their relationships with integration outcomes (see for example Ismail, 2019; Kozina, 2020; Lundkvist et al., 2020; Machovceva, 2017; Peterson et al., 2016; Wong & Schweitzer, 2017). This paper seeks to address these gaps. It was developed as part of the international research project MiCREATE, within which an extensive empirical database was collected in six countries: Austria, Denmark, Slovenia, Spain, Poland and the United Kingdom. The article presents a multivariate explanatory model of migrant youth integration that incorporates factors at the macro (country), meso (school), and micro (individual characteristics of learners) levels. For the operationalisation of integration, six indicators were identified, tackling cognitive, social, and psychological dimensions. These indicators include integration into the school environment, integration into extracurricular activities, integration into peer groups, levels of psychological well-being, proficiency in the host-country language, and academic achievement. Particular attention is paid to the school environment as the central meso level, as educational institutions represent, for most migrant youth, the first and most intensive point of contact with the host country (Dežan & Sedmak, 2020; 2023; Schachner et al., 2018; Sedmak et al., 2022). The central research question explores how, and to what extent, the school environment shapes the integration of migrant learners across six European countries. The empirical model results from an original integration of Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) with Overton’s relational–developmental systems metatheory (Overton, 2015), providing a robust framework for examining and explaining the integration of migrant learners as a dynamic, relational, multilevel, and temporally situated process. This combined conceptual framework enables a holistic and systemic understanding of migrant integration, which is not conceptualised as something that merely happens to pupils, but rather as a process in which they are actively involved.

Analyses were conducted using a dataset based on a non-probability convenience sample of migrant and non-migrant pupils from six European countries: Austria, Denmark, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. These countries participated in the international project MiCREATE (Migrant Children and Communities in a Transforming Europe). The project was implemented between 2019 and 2022, with data collection carried out from April 2020 to May 2021. Data were primarily collected through face-to-face surveys using Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI). The sample comprised 3,244 pupils from 40 educational institutions (54.4% girls), of whom 700 had a migrant background (48.8% girls). Participants were between 8 and 19 years old (M = 13.1, SD = 2.41). The study questionnaire consisted of 30 items addressing various aspects of the lives of migrant and non-migrant learners, as well as their attitudes towards a range of social issues. The questionnaire aimed to collect data on pupils’ attitudes towards cultural pluralism, migration, migrants, and integration. It enabled the collection of information related to individual indicators of integration in the host country, including academic achievement, psychological well-being, integration into peer groups, participation in school and extracurricular activities, and self-assessed proficiency in the host-country language. In addition, the questionnaire gathered socio-demographic information on gender, age, ethnicity, mother tongue, religious affiliation, attitudes towards intercultural issues, type of settlement, and length of residence in the host country. The questionnaire was composed of items drawn from standardised instruments that had been previously empirically tested and demonstrated adequate validity and reliability. Multilevel linear modelling was employed to examine the relationship between macro-level factors and the level of integration of migrant pupils.

The findings confirm the importance of inclusive pedagogical approaches for the integration of migrant learners into the school environment. The results indicate that educational contexts in which teaching staff employ inclusive practices are statistically significantly and positively associated with migrant learners’ integration into the school environment, their integration into peer groups, and their levels of psychological well-being. Furthermore, more inclusive school environments, characterised by more favourable learner attitudes towards migration, are associated with higher levels of migrant learners’ integration into the school environment. However, this effect becomes statistically non-significant once the inclusivity of teaching staff is controlled for. This finding suggests that the integration of migrant learners is largely driven by the inclusive practices of teaching staff, as these practices outweigh the influence of learners’ favourable attitudes. A similar pattern emerges with regard to peer integration. Migrant learners attending schools where peers hold more favourable attitudes towards migration appear to be better integrated into peer groups; however, this association becomes statistically non-significant once the inclusivity of teaching staff is included in the model. This again highlights the central role of inclusive pedagogical practices, through which teaching staff, via their example and everyday practices, can facilitate access to peer groups and compensate for the effects of peers’ attitudes.

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