Listening at the Threshold: Migrant Children, Policy, and Practice in Polish Education

A Quiet Beginning to the Year

by Larysa Sugay

The first days of a new year often arrive with a gentler rhythm, especially for those whose December was filled with deadlines, reports, and frantic project closures. After that intensity, early January can feel like a ritual of decompression—a moment for rest, readjustment, and quiet reflection on personal and professional intentions. Tasks are reviewed more calmly, and plans take shape at a slower pace.

The academic world is no exception. Early January is often a liminal period in the scientific calendar: one cycle has ended, and the next has not yet begun. Even small gestures betray this in‑between state—hands still instinctively writing “25” instead of “26.” It is a mundane but telling sign of transition, of standing between what has been and what is only beginning to unfold.

An Unusually Intense Start

Against this backdrop, the Institute of Educational Research (IBE PIB) began 2026 at full speed. On January 8, it hosted a conference summarizing the project Students and Pupils with Experience of Migration and Asylum in Polish Schools, 2004–2024. The project brought together experts researching migrant children across different contexts, many of whom also spoke at the conference.

The program’s strength lay in its combination of experienced researchers and practitioners—teachers and intercultural assistants—who work with migrant children on a daily basis. This mix created hope that the conference would be more than a space “where talking heads say wise things.” Instead, school was treated as a social world where biographies, languages, traditions, and expectations intersect. The presence of scholars, practitioners, and NGO representatives reinforced this sense of shared engagement.

Policy, Categories, and Everyday School Life

In the opening address, Dr. Anna Dolińska (IBE PIB), the project leader, reflected on two decades of migrant children’s presence in Poland. Beyond statistics and trends, she cautioned against metaphors such as a “wave” or “flood” of migrants: migrant children currently constitute around 5 percent of all pupils. She also emphasized that regardless of future demographic shifts—return or onward migration—many migrant children will remain in Poland. As they move through the education system, especially into secondary schools, strengthening the competencies of both pedagogical and non‑pedagogical staff becomes essential.

Dr. hab. Mikołaj Pawlak continued this discussion in his talk on educational policy toward children with non‑Polish citizenship. He invited participants to see policy not as an abstract set of regulations, but as a collection of everyday practices that define who counts as “one of our own” at school. The categories we use, he argued, inevitably shape narratives about migrant children and their place in society.

Listening to Children’s Voices

The perspective of students themselves was presented by Dr. Anzhela Popyk in her talk on Polish schools as seen by pupils from Ukraine. Drawing on the experiences of eighth graders, she highlighted what these young people perceive as challenges and sources of support. Their most frequent requests—to be listened to, respected, and recognized beyond academic performance—require no major financial investment, only attentiveness and care.

The theme of differentiated migration experiences and layered vulnerabilities was further explored by Dr. Elżbieta Mirga‑Wójtowicz in her presentation on Roma children from Ukraine. She drew attention to the risk of double exclusion and reminded the audience that migration is never a homogeneous experience. When integration policies are poorly designed or implemented, school can become a site of repeated marginalization, where ethnic stereotypes, poverty, and language barriers reinforce one another.

Inclusion as Invisible Work

The second part of the conference focused on the project School Accessible to All. Speakers emphasized that inclusion is often an “invisible” form of work carried out by teachers (Dr. Magdalena Boczkowska), intercultural assistants (Agnieszka Kozakoszczak), and through coordinated, multi‑level support involving NGOs and public institutions. In Poland, this often means that practices developed by more experienced actors—primarily NGOs—are gradually transferred to schools and educational authorities still learning to navigate diversity. Such cooperation enables translation not only of language, but also of cultural and emotional differences.

Why Children’s Perspectives Matter

Children under 18 make up around 18 percent of Poland’s population; approximately 5 million children and young people—about 14 percent of the population—are enrolled in the education system. If childhood and adolescence occupy roughly a quarter of an average lifespan, it is deeply unjust to silence one‑fifth of society for a quarter of their lives. Migrant children are a significant part of this group: pupils from more than 150 countries currently attend Polish schools.

It was encouraging to hear repeated emphasis on integration as a two‑way process, rather than a form of soft Polonization or assimilation. Yet one may still ask how long it will take for the education system, politicians, and society to see the presence of migrant children not primarily as a problem or threat, but as a set of resources, capacities, and opportunities.

Reflections and Open Questions

The conference felt less like a series of formal speeches and more like a working group, combining research, pedagogy, and practice. This atmosphere made it possible to discuss challenges without excessive distance. The issues surrounding migrant children are not only about adapting “new” pupils; they act as a mirror reflecting the limits of the Polish school system—its assumptions about normality and its readiness for life under conditions of mobility and diversity.

Listening to the presentations revived a familiar question. Regardless of numbers, there seems always to be a narrative of complaint. In 2015, when migrant children made up less than 1% of pupils, their presence was framed as culturally problematic. In 2025, with around 5%, it is described as a “threatening wave.” Rarely acknowledged is that migrant children may help fill demographic gaps caused by declining birth rates. Is a half‑empty school really less troubling than a diverse classroom that brings new languages, experiences, and possibilities?

Concluding Thoughts

From an anthropological perspective, migration is not only about politics, but also about how institutions learn through crisis. Schools become sites where symbolic borders are drawn and where language and citizenship acquire moral weight as markers of belonging. What is needed, perhaps most of all, is elasticity of thought: an understanding that the world is not divided into simple “us” and “them.” Both are internally diverse, and it is within these differences that meaningful human relations emerge.

The hope is that the spirit of engagement visible at the conference will not fade like New Year’s resolutions, but will be carried—step by step—into everyday school practice. Only then can schools become spaces of belonging and identity‑building, rather than places where difference is merely observed and managed from a distance.