We are witnessing today’s population movements on our planet. Millions of people are moving out of their countries. According to the UNHCR declaration, refugees cannot return to their country due to danger. Migrants move for education, economic or other reasons. They can return to their home-countries. Refugees, which we often call migrants, are the vast majority. However, the fact is that many refugees and migrants move to other countries with their children. Both adults and children face many problems in host countries. Many of these problems arise from cultural differences.
I am writing this essay based on my experiences in the 1990s. I worked with children who fled the war from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the breakup of Ex-Yugoslavia. I worked with refugee children in Serbia, and for 7 months I led a group of children in Nea Apolloni, Republic of Greece. These were children of Serbian and Croatian nationality and children from mixed Serbian-Croatian and Muslim-Croatian marriages. The project, in which over 20,000 children participated, was organized by the Government of Greece and the Serbian Red Cross. I am sure my fellow-teachers in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have similar experiences.
In most cases, one of the first problems refugees and migrants’ children encounter is their unfamiliarity with the language of the host country. Regardless of the colour of their skin, these children are for this reason already accepted (or not accepted) as foreigners in school settings. In the beginning, these children cannot enter into any kind of spoken communication; they cannot express their thoughts or feelings, their needs or their desires… Naturally, they are confused and scared. The approach to this problem varies from country to country. In some countries, learning the language of the host country is organized. As opposed to this, in some other countries, it takes place spontaneously: children try to understand an unknown language at school, follow the material in an incomprehensible language to them and spontaneously acquire the language from the environment. The luckiest ones also acquire the language through the media. I say the luckiest because many families cannot even afford a TV set due to poverty. EVERY COUNTRY SHOULD PROVIDE REFUGEE AND MIGRANT CHILDREN WITH ORGANIZED LANGUAGE LEARNING.
The children of refugees and migrants are already filled with sorrow because of the environment change due to leaving their country, homes, friends, schools, grandparents… As insignificant as it may seem to us adults, these children also suffer for their toys and pets they left behind. Many children came from war-torn countries, with serious traumas and great fears due to the various situations that wars bring. The bombings and shootings, while the children were in the basements or outside, caused enormous trauma to the children. In many countries, unfortunately, children have witnessed individual or mass murders and rapes. They watched their family members and neighbors being taken away. Many children have encountered enormous fears and traumas on their way to the host country. In some countries in the world, the psychological problems of war trauma are not resolved in an organized manner or with any strategy, but these children’s psychological development is neglected and left to the whims of fate. These children remain unhappy, often closed inside themselves, lonely, and as such not accepted by the environment. We must work on the emotional and social intelligence of these children as well. EACH COUNTRY MUST PROVIDE PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP FROM PSYCHOLOGISTS, CHILD PSYCHIATRISTS AND OTHER EXPERTS FOR DEALING WITH THESE CHILDREN’S PROBLEMS.
Cultural and religious differences are very important. These children often receive a label that they are uncultured, due to cultural and religious differences. No. It has only to do with different cultures, customs and milieus in which these children were raised. School rules and behavior in schools that these children attended are certainly different from the school rules of the country which received the refugees or migrants. Some rules in school systems are compulsory and decent, whereas the same rules are unacceptable in some other countries. Family is one of the tradition holders and upbringing of the children. It is the phenomenon that even children living in one and the same country can be brought up with similar but also different rules; let alone what huge difference in upbringing children may be for those who grew up in various parts of the world. In addition to all this, the environment and the media also participate in the education of children. In some countries, common law is also conspicuous and is inbuilt into upbringing. CONTINUOUS WORKSHOPS ON PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP SHOULD BE HELD IN EACH COUNTRY AND THE AIM OF THOSE WORKSHOPS SHOULD BE NURTURING THE CULTURAL HABITS OF CHILDREN, APPRECIATING THEIR RELIGION AND ACHIEVING THE HARMONY WITH THE CULTURE AND RELIGION OF THE HOST COUNTRY.
CONCLUSION:
Children of the refugees and migrants should be treated in a systematic and organised way. The principles that should be respected in this work are: compassion, respect, appreciation, tolerance and love. Children should preserve their national integrity and adapt to cultural norms and live in harmony and harmony with the population of the host country.
Predrag Starčević, a teacher,
a holder of the highest national recognition in the field of education,
“The best educator in Serbia of 2020,”
Serbia