Migrant Students’ Sense of Belonging and the Covid‐19 Pandemic: Implications for Educational Inclusion
Nikolett Szelei
Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University, Belgium
Ines Devlieger
Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University, Belgium
An Verelst
Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University, Belgium
Caroline Spaas
Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, KU Leuven, Belgium
Signe Smith Jervelund
Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Nina Langer Primdahl
Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Morten Skovdal
Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Marianne Opaas
Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, Norway
Natalie Durbeej
Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala University, Sweden
Fatumo Osman
Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala University, Sweden / School of Health and Welfare, Dalarna University, Sweden
Emma Soye
School of Education and Social Work, University of Sussex, UK
Hilde Colpin
School Psychology and Development in Context Research Unit, KU Leuven, Belgium
Lucia De Haene
Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, KU Leuven, Belgium
Sanni Aalto
Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland
Reeta Kankaanpää
Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland
Kirsi Peltonen
Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland / Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Turku, Finland / INVEST Research Flagship Center, University of Turku, Finland
Arnfinn J. Andersen
Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, Norway
Per Kristian Hilden
Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, Norway
Charles Watters
School of Education and Social Work, University of Sussex, UK
Ilse Derluyn
Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University, Belgium
Abstract: This article investigates school belonging among migrant students and how this changed during the Covid‐19 pandemic. Drawing on quantitative data gathered from 751 migrant students in secondary schools in six European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the UK), we examined the impact of Covid‐19 school closures, social support, and post‐traumatic stress symptoms on changes in school belonging. Linear regression showed a non‐significant decrease in school belonging, and none of the studied variables had a significant effect on this change in our whole sample. However, sensitivity analysis on a subsample from three countries (Denmark, Finland, and the UK) showed a small but significant negative effect of increasing post‐traumatic stress symptoms on school belonging during Covid‐19 school closures. Given that scholarship on school belonging during Covid‐19 is emergent, this study delineates some key areas for future research on the relationship between wellbeing, school belonging, and inclusion.
Keywords: Covid‐19; inclusion; migrants; post‐traumatic stress; school belonging; social support