Study on the of Teachers’ and Parents’ Perception on the Remigration Phenomenon

Abstract

This study presents the synthesis of investigations presented in the literature on the issue of migration and remigration, taking in consideration the size and consequences of this phenomenon in terms of education and in the light of the factors and responsible agents for child education, also parents and teachers. Remigrant students who are enrolled in the Romanian Educational System are divided into two categories: children (students), borned in Romania, who have outlined national consciousness, entered in the circular migration with parents and children who were borned in their adopted country and Romanian national language and culture and not for them an adequate representation, their perception being diffused. They knew that the adopted country is their country because there were born there and the place where they lived and were very well integrated and communicate easily with peers, teachers and friends gave them safety and joy along with their parents.

Keywords: Remigrant studentschool difficultiesschool performance

Introduction

The remigration term means the migrant’s returning to their home country as a result of a temporary migration.

Upon studying migration, return is no longer deemed to be the final stage of a linear process, as migrants prepare this stage by countless visits and by the financial and social remittances.

The vast majority of remigrants is represented by compact families, composed of both parents. Some of them took their children to the migrating country, some others found a family, after which they had children, whom they rose and educated in the host country. There are increasingly more Romanians having left abroad to work who decide to come back to Romania, mainly motivated by the educational system down here, thought to be ‘more responsible and discipline-based’ .

Like in case of the trials regarding migration for work purposes, in case of the researches on the return there is not one single generally valid theory that accounts for such a complex phenomenon (Cassarino, 2004). Reintegration to the home country has been analysed by some researchers in correlation to the following factors : the context of the reintegration to the originating country, the nature of the foreign experience felt in the destination country and the optimum duration of migration, pro rata the personal goals and the wage differences between the origin and the destination countries (Dustmann, 2003).

Effects of remigration

The children’s returning to the home country – in case of those that have spent a significant lap of time in another culture – might have negative effects caused either by re-adaptation or by anxiety, depression, conflict of identity or interpersonal difficulties. The causes for the appearance of such a shock of returning are the new experiences, a new way of understanding the world and the acquisition of a new identity. A remigrant pupil may feel strange and frustrated, notably because of the expectations unsatisfied in the originating country, which shape up a set of hopes and desires projected as real certain possibilities in the host-country, yet not always accomplished. It is general knowledge that the children of the Romanian emigrants are received reservedly in certain countries, even with hostility and often refused. Remigration can cause effects on the long run upon the various sides of the child’s personality:

• problems of social re-adaptation and reintegration, which but part of the remigrant children admit;

• modifications in the child’s emotionality and feelings;

• modifications in the behavioural sides of the personality;

• somatic and psycho-somatic disorders.

The direct and indirect effects of remigration, which we have identified in the existing literature as a result of our own investigations and from the talks had with the faculties that manage remigrant pupils, may be summed up in the following way (Catalano, 2014):

• semi-linguism, as a phenomenon deviating from the normal linguistic skills, consisting in the individual’s incapacity of speaking clearly, coherently and elaborately;

• the incapacity of appropriately responding to the school assignments;

• various learning difficulties;

• the reduced adaptation to the curriculum;

• deficient relationships with the schoolmates and the faculties;

• the negative stigmata determined by remigration;

• the problems of social re-adaptation and reintegration (Luca & al., 2012);

• the lack of cultural identity and of belongness to a national culture;

• the high risk of developing a certain specific pro-social disorder: emotional, behavioural, focus- or relationship-linked difficulties (Luca & al., 2012);

• neurotism / hyper-activity / focus instability (Manasia & Hăhăianu, 2013);

• insomnia / headaches / stomachaches / the lack of appetite (Manasia & Hăhăianu, 2013).

The aforementioned symptomatic picture is manifested differently, depending on the remigrant pupil’s gender, age, migration duration, personality and also on the personality of the people with whom he/she gets direct contact : schoolmates and faculties.

Trial aim, goals and hypothesis

In order to highlight certain practical sides concerning remigration we initiated a trial aiming at supporting and building awareness to all the people involved in the remigrant pupils’ direct or indirect management in terms of education, parental and social protection, both from the formal and informal environment.

As regards the goals, we set up the following:

• to improve the school-family-pupil partnership relationships;

• to identify the factors that influence remigration from the standpoint of the school results;

• to measure the degree of interest shown by the faculties and family in order to mitigate the effects caused by the return migration;

• to stimulate the parents’ responsibility towards their children.

Our trial departs from the idea that the identification of all the categories of factors that influence the remigrant pupils significantly facilitates their adjustment, integration and success in the school and social life.

We deem the pedagogical factors to be decisive for school success.

Methodology and results

The data collected from the remigrant pupils, their parents and the faculties that work with such pupils will help understand the way in which they will adjust as quickly and efficiently as possible to the Romanian educational system, very much different from the systems that they have experienced.

The main investigation method that enabled us to establish the causes and the effects was the questionnaire-based investigation and the secondary methods included observation and the study of the school documents. The colleague talks with the faculties that manage remigrant pupils and with people in charge within the School Division were of great help.

Data analysis and interpretation

Conclusions, recommendations, limits

Upon returning to Romania, both the parent and the child should receive a list of institutions likely to facilitate the child’s readaptation, with everything that each institution can do, so that their role be known in case of specific situations. In addition, the family’s or the child’s efforts should be directed as to meet the specific needs in terms of school or social readaptation.

The interested parents have learnt that only close to school will they be able to uphold their children and to guide them to a harmonious development. The remigrant pupils’ social and school experience can be taken the best out of in the context of formal or non-formal education ; they can thus be encouraged, valorised and appreciated by the schoolmates and the faculties. The remigrant children have understood that school is the second family, that class relationships are based on respect and friendship, on mutual help. As far as the faculties are concerned, they have applied the principles of a modern active education, based on collaboration and pupil awareness.

Unfortunately, we have to assert that the Romanian school education is not yet ready to integrate the remigrant children into the Romanian schools and that at present the ones that come up with solutions are the parents and the teachers.

As regards the reliability and the validity of the methodological instruments used by us, we deem them to have certain constraints.

Consequently, the validation of an instrument for fully screening the manifestations specific to the remigrant pupil’s behaviour and personality, able to measure exactly their disorders, depressive inclinations – from the slightest symptoms to the most severe ones, their mental and social-emotional condition, wellness, somatic and psycho-somatic disorders from the moment when the child is reintegrated into the Romanian educational system calls for legally regulated institutional approaches, a certain flexibility from the part of the faculties, the parents’ agreement and involvement in the children’s adaptation, as well as collaboration between the persons in charge in schools and the other responsible State institutions (Catalano, 2014).

The statistical data and the large extent of the migration phenomenon enable us to assert that the persons in charge within the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Protection and Elderly People must consider the elaboration of a remigration Act, able to provide the social, educational, psychological and economical protection needed by these categories of vulnerable people within shortest.

The remigrant pupils’ reintegration into the school environment has to be based on an obvious collaboration between all the institutions and the persons involved. The measures that need implementing thus ensue from the answers offered by the questioned faculties, from the professional discussions and also from the focus-groups with the parents, who are sometimes unsatisfied with the institutional rigidity (Catalano, 2015).

References

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