Migration and Education

The volume MIGRATION AND EDUCATION is the first publication of the recently created Migrant Education and Integration Research Centre (CBEIM – in Polish: Centrum Badań nad Edukacją i Integracją Migrantów) at the Pedagogical University of Kraków. It appears at a time when the integration of migrants in Europe has become a crucial issue. The International Office for Migration defines migration as “the movement of a person or a group of persons, either across an international border, or within a State. It is a population movement, encompassing any kind of movement of people, whatever its length, composition and causes; it includes migration of refugees, displaced persons, economic migrants, and persons moving for other purposes, including family.” In this book we focus on migrant education because education is one of the most important determinants of an individual’s human capital and there is a strong relationship between migration and education. “Education enables people to supply skills that can be used in a variety of tasks. Migrants raise the supply of certain skills and hence the range of potential tasks associated with them, but natives can limit the effect of the increased competition brought by migrants by moving onto different tasks that are less easily supplied by immigrants” (Tani 2017). Migrants leave their country to find a more peaceful or just a better place to live. Migrants also move to gain an education and this also has a direct effect on education in the host country itself.

Any person’s integration in Europe is defined by his/her positively playing a set of social roles. The basic role is that of a working person, working successfully and according to the European labour legislation. This assures the dignity of work. To be integrated in Europe also means to successfully play the role of a citizen of a democratic country, one who is conscious of his/her rights and duties. [...]