School integration of unaccompanied minors in Portugal: Measures and practices

• Autor(a) principal: Esteves, Ana Filipa Ramos
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/29958
• topic: Forced migration; Unaccompanied minors; School integration; Educação -- Education; Portugal; Migração forçada; Menores estrangeiros não acompanhados; Integração escolar

Throughout history, human beings have always tended to move for different reasons, hoping to find a place that could provide better living conditions. Consequently, it is possible to distinguish two types of migration: voluntary migration and forced migration. The focus of this dissertation is forced migration, especially unaccompanied minors. An unaccompanied minor is someone under 18 years old who migrates without their parents or other legal guardians. For this reason, this group of young people is very vulnerable and face additional challenges during their migration process. Another important aspect of this process is education, which has a major role in their lives, and schools can be a place of support for them. In this way, it is important that schools implement measures and practices of integration for these minors. Consequently, the goal of this dissertation is to identify which measures and practices are being implemented in the school environment to integrate unaccompanied minors in Portugal, including the challenges felt by schools and what can be improved. For this, semi-structured interviews were conducted in three different schools and in a reception center in Lisbon. During the analysis’ process, it was possible to determine some conclusions, including the lack of preparation on the part of the Portuguese government, which limits schools ability to establish some integration measures.