School Experiences of Children of Roma Migrant Returnees and Refugees from the Middle East
School Experiences of Children of Roma Migrant Returnees and Refugees from the Middle East

Summary/Abstract: Based upon ethnographic fieldwork conducted amongst families of Bulgarian Roma returnees and refugees from the Middle East in Bulgaria, this paper discusses the problems of adaptation, which children face in elementary and secondary schools. Using a dialogical approach as the main strategy of fieldwork, I interviewed Roma returnee parents and children from different settlements, on the one hand, directors, homeroom teachers, and school staff, on the other, as well as experts in education. I conducted research amongst refugee families from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and Iran in the southern town of Harmanli, where a refugee camp was set up in 2013. I am specifically interested in the children’s enrollment for the school years 2017 – 2018 and 2018 – 2019 when, for the first time, refugee pupils are enrolled in larger numbers in public schools, as a result of the introduction of Ordinance No. 3 of 2017. On the basis of the fieldwork material and reviewed documents, I state that the approaches to returnee and refugee students can be called ‘mainstream’ and ‘specific’ approaches. Under the mainstream approach, the pupils are categorised as ‘children of Bulgarian citizens living abroad’ and none of them are specifically labeled as ‘Roma’. The attitude towards them is similar to that of children of other Bulgarian return migrants. A special (targeting) approach is adopted for refugee children, who are included in the same group of ‘vulnerable’ students along with Roma pupils, assuming that both do not have a good command of the Bulgarian language and are at risk for unsuccessful adaptation at school.

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