Migrant Students' Sense of Belonging and the Covid-19 Pandemic: Implications for Educational Inclusion

Abstract

This article investigates school belonging among migrant students and how this changed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on quantitative data gathered from 751 migrant students in secondary schools in six European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the UK), we examined the impact of Covid-19 school closures, social support, and post-traumatic stress symptoms on changes in school belonging. Linear regression showed a non-significant decrease in school belonging, and none of the studied variables had a significant effect on this change in our whole sample. However, sensitivity analysis on a subsample from three countries (Denmark, Finland, and the UK) showed a small but significant negative effect of increasing post-traumatic stress symptoms on school belonging during Covid-19 school closures. Given that scholarship on school belonging during Covid-19 is emergent, this study delineates some key areas for future research on the relationship between wellbeing, school belonging, and inclusion.