YOUMIG-partner from Germany, Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS Regensburg) has its seat in Regensburg, Bavaria, a city of more than 150,000 inhabitants and a long history of multi-ethnic migration flows. Regensburg was founded by the Romans, and since then went through major periods of flourishing as an important trade and cultural centre, and an industrial boom in the 1960s-1970s. Industry developments attracted many guest workers (Gastarbeiters) from Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia, and Turkey. Currently, almost 16% of the resident population has foreign citizenship, and an additional 20% (while holding a German citizenship) was either born abroad or to foreign-born parents. Modern migrants do not come alone, but with families, and every second child in the city’s kindergartens has a migration background.

As language skills are essential for most learning processes such as listening, reading, writing and interaction with teachers and peers, a knowledge of the local language shapes the educational performance of migrant children. To acquire the language of the host country as a second language successfully, migrants need to immerse themselves in the foreign language environment.  Even second-generation migrants, born in the host country but growing up in a linguistic isolation, might fall behind at school if they do not have the required language skills. Within the German educational system, which is a system where children are separated early on by skill level, children from disadvantageous groups, or those with “language and social deficits”, are often unable to close the gaps in performance and end up losing out on education.

Parents influence their children’s school performance on many levels, and they make most of their education-related decisions, such as choosing early child care, an active participation in school life, and helping with homework at home. The importance of this factor is recognised by several programmes successfully implemented by the City of Regensburg, such as the project Maxi-mum(m), special unit InMigra-KiD, and project HAJDE targeting migrants from Southern Europe, as well as multiple projects run by urban districts and adult educational centres.

The project Maxi-mum(m) is for families with children who will soon attend kindergarten and need support. Parents - usually mothers – get more familiar with how kindergartens function in a friendly, small-group setting. For children with a migration background, pre-school childcare is a way to be slowly introduced to everyday life in Germany: meeting other children, learning a foreign language, learning the rules of society and about unfamiliar situations.

During these counselling sessions, fears and prejudices towards day care can be reduced  among the participants and a decision to introduce their own children to the child care experience is encouraged. As the transition can be stressful for children, instead of starting  kindergarten directly, children can gain an experience in small groups of 10. By this slow approach, the first experiences can be positive, and form a good basis for future integration.

The project InMigraKiD (a unit for the integration of children of migrants in Germany) is part of the City Office for Youth and Family in Regensburg since 2007. Together with its own network of professionals, InMigraKiD develops and implements measures for fostering the integration of migrant families and their children. There are more than 60 specially-trained volunteer interpreters at the unit, working in over 30 languages. The interpreter services can be booked by educational institutions (e.g., by teachers) or by migrant parents themselves, in order to help flawless communication related to individual questions and problems. Additionally, parents themselves can access an individual counselling service with educators at all levels, starting with kindergarten. Questions that arise might be the structure of the German educational system, integration in schools, or other similar issues.

Over the last decade, and after the latest EU enlargement, the immigration flows from Southern and Eastern Europe have intensified further, making Romanians and Bulgarians the two most prominent ethnic groups in the city, numbering 2,530 and 1,765 persons, respectively (in 2017). The Romanian and Bulgarian migrant groups are very heterogeneous: while 25% of them completed a university degree, about 35% has no professional training at all.  The project HAJDe, which is best translated as “Searching for help in Germany for young persons from South-Eastern Europe”( Hilfe Aufsuchend für Junge Menschen in Deutschland aus Südosteuropa), is a consultancy and guidance centre for solving issues in education, housing, health, and the labour market. Among others, a “Mietführerschein” (housing license, which is in a way like a drivers’ license) has been developed, and during five learning sessions, together with the relevant German vocabulary, migrants learn the legal details and cultural norms important for renting an apartment. The centre also provides help and information with regards to childcare, access to public services, as well as provision of food and clothing.

But the main focus is placed on the integration of children and youth from South-Eastern Europe through the active involvement of their parents. As the lack of language skills impede access to advice and assistance, counselling is offered in several languages. The main target groups are migrants from Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Croatia, Greece and Spain. HAJDe is embedded in a network of collaborators on an administrative level, namely the City Office of Migration and Integration, the City Office for Social Service, and several NGOs targeting migrants such as Caritas or EJSA.

Text by Ekaterina Skoglund, IOS Regensburg