Addressing the Educational Needs of Non-European Refugee Children in Czechia: Social Work Interventions
Addressing the Educational Needs of Non-European Refugee Children in Czechia: Social Work Interventions

Summary/Abstract: his study examines the extent to which social workers in Czechia understand and ad-dress the educational needs of non-European refugee children in a national context that is characterised by strong anti-refugee sentiment and limited policy support. Drawing on the holistic integration model and social origin of civil society theory, the findings re-veal that social workers understand these educational needs as both complex and mul-tidimensional. While language acquisition is seen as essential, participants emphasise that this factor alone is insufficient in a background of under-resourced schools with un-prepared teachers and weak institutional coordination. In response, social workers adopt a compensatory approach involving the implementation of individual, familial and insti-tutional interventions so as to mitigate the systemic shortcomings. The state does not directly fund the intervention of social workers. This empirical study is the first to hig-hlight the crucial but often overlooked role of social workers in the education of non-Eu-ropean refugee children as intermediaries who bridge the various systemic gaps in the education of refugees. The study provides the first empirical analysis of social work in-terventions directed at non-European refugee children in Czechia and by underscoring the need for the strengthening of cooperation between schools, policymakers and prac-titioners so as to facilitate integration.

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