Immigrants children integration: Findings from Baltic and south European countries

Abstract

The research aimed to analyse the level of integration within the EU achieved by immigrants’ children from a non-EU country. The cases of the Baltic countries, Lithuania and Latvia, and the Southern European countries, Italy and Spain, were taken as the target countries. The objectives of the research were: (1) to explore theoretically the phenomenon of child immigration in the European Union; (2) to analyse the practical issues integrated into immigration policies that help immigrants’ children to integrate into the host country, in particular the Baltic and Southern European countries; (3) to study the level of immigrant children integration in the Baltic and Southern European countries. The research was developed through face-to-face and online interviews with minors aged 10-15 years in the presence of at least one of their parents. The results show that on most occasions immigration is caused by difficult circumstances that leave families with no room for choice. The results report several factors that help the integration of foreign minors within the host country; these factors are having an appropriate home in which to live, having the possibility to study, having stable relations with the family, and creating relationships of trust and friendship with their peers, having access to health care services, and receiving emotional and social support from territorial NGOs, social services, and host society.