On 24 February 2022, Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine, causing the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. As of September 2022, 7.5 million Ukrainians had fled to other European countries—0.4 million to the Czech Republic alone, making the Czech Republic the country hosting the highest per capita number of Ukrainian refugees among all countries, at 37 Ukrainian refugees per 1000 inhabitants (UNHCR, 2022).
The influx of refugees has put many Czech public services under an unprecedented strain, with the educational system among the most affected: 32% of the Ukrainian refugees fleeing to the Czech Republic were children under the age of 18 who required access to education (UNHCR, 2022). The Czech Republic pledged to provide free and accessible education to all refugee children in regular Czech state schools in inclusive classrooms along with Czech students (Bill no. 67/2022; Bill no. 199/2022). At the beginning of the 2022/2023 school year (September 2022), there were 52,107 Ukrainian children enrolled at Czech lower secondary schools, constituting 5% of the whole student population (Ministry of Education, 2022d). Hence, in a very short amount of time, Czech schools became home to large numbers of Ukrainian refugees who had no prior knowledge of Czech language, and Ukrainian refugees quickly became the largest ethnic minority in Czech schools.
To our knowledge, no study has yet researched peer relationships of Ukrainian refugees in the host country following the 2022 invasion. However, based on evidence from studies dealing with peer relationships of refugee students coming from other countries, we assume the Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic were at risk of social exclusion in schoolsFootnote 1. Ukrainian refugee students in the Czech Republic faced a three-fold disadvantage in establishing peer relationships in schools—becoming an ethnic minority in an educational system operating in an ethnically homogeneous society, lacking proficiency in the Czech language, and managing psychosocial adjustment problems stemming from their relocation and war experience in their home country. First, previous studies from primary and secondary school classrooms have provided comprehensive evidence that ethnic minority students are more likely to be excluded (Boda and Néray, 2015; Fisher et al., 2000; Wilson and Rodkin, 2011) and more likely to form friendships with classmates of the same ethnicity (Bellmore et al., 2007; Currarini et al., 2010; Goodreau et al., 2009; Hajdu et al., 2021; Kruse et al., 2016; Leszczensky and Pink, 2015; Rodkin et al., 2007; Shrum et al., 1988; Smith et al., 2014; Vermeij et al., 2009; Wilson and Rodkin, 2011; Wittek et al., 2020). Being an ethnic minority is in itself linked to having worse relationships in schools; it has been further argued that the previously ethnically homogenous Czech educational system does not provide any tangible support for ethnic minority students and implicitly promotes lower acceptance of non-Czech students (Jarkovská et al., 2015; Obrovská et al., 2021). Second, most Ukrainian refugees lack proficiency in the Czech language. A lack of proficiency in the national language is one of the greatest barriers for refugees to establishing friendships in schools and largely limits them to establishing friendships with other refugees (Cavicchiolo et al., 2023; Evans and Liu, 2018; Li and Grineva, 2016; Trickett and Birman, 2005). Third, many Ukrainian refugees faced psychosocial distress stemming from their relocation and war experience, which further exacerbates refugee students’ inability to form school friendships (Guarnaccia and Lopez, 1998; Lustig et al., 2004). It has been shown that traumatised children tend to isolate themselves from their peers (Cherewick et al., 2015; Macksoud et al., 1993). Numerous studies focusing specifically on the relationships of first-generation children in schools have confirmed that first-generation children are more likely to face exclusion (Alivernini et al., 2019; Bianchi et al., 2021; Boda et al., 2023; Cheung and Llu, 2012; Guo et al., 2019; Motti-Stefanidi et al., 2008; Oxman-Martinez and Choi, 2014; Plenty and Jonsson, 2017; Strohmeier et al., 2011; Zhang et al., 2020) and are more likely form friendships with other first-generation children (Campigotto et al., 2022; Schachner et al., 2016; Titzmann and Silbereisen, 2009; Windzio, 2015).
Having good peer relationships in school is, however, an essential part of a refugee’s successful psychosocial adjustment to a new country, mental health, and academic performance. Adolescents often view school as their primary social context, where they develop and maintain social relations (Coleman, 1961; Steinberg, 2020). Student academic and social lives are therefore intrinsically connected (Juvonen and Wentzel, 1996). Good peer relationships help refugees with psychosocial adjustment by providing social support and a sense of safety (Almqvist and Broberg, 1999; Juang et al., 2018; Kovacev and Shute, 2004). Having good peer relationships in school also leads to better mental health among refugees (Emerson et al., 2022; Samara et al., 2020) and support from friends has a positive impact on refugees struggling with PTSD (Verelst et al., 2022). Furthermore, when refugees have good peer relationships in schools, it positively influences their academic performance (Wong and Schweitzer, 2017). Conversely, when refugees are excluded by their peers in school and face discrimination from their classmates, they become academically less engaged and more likely to drop out of school (Umaña-Taylor, 2016). Good relationships between refugees and non-refugees in schools further benefit not only the refugee students themselves, but also the non-refugee students—they positively affect student mental health (van der Does and Adem, 2021), lead to lower perceived vulnerability (Graham et al., 2014), and reduce prejudice among students (Pettigrew and Tropp, 2008).
Several studies tried to determine how school or classroom ethnic composition can influence the social integration of refugees and the formation of cross-ethnic relationships among students. The studies have provided inconclusive results and, except for Boda et al. (2023), the studies were not aimed specifically at exploring the effect of classroom composition on the peer relationships of refugee students. On the one hand, Boda et al. (2023) found that ethnically diverse classrooms in Germany enhanced opportunities for refugee students to interact with peers from other ethnic minorities and increase acceptance by peers from the ethnic majority. Similarly, Quillian and Campbell (2003) reported an increase in inter-ethnic friendships as school ethnic diversity increased. Moreover, Kawabata and Crick (2011) and Hajdu et al. (2021) reported an increase in inter-ethnic friendships as classroom ethnic diversity increased. On the other hand, Joyner and Kao (2000) found the adolescent likelihood of having an inter-ethnic friendship decreased as the proportion of same-ethnicity students in their school increased. Smith et al. (2016) reported that the immigrant tendency to form intra-ethnic friendships disproportionately increased as immigrants saw more same-ethnic peers. Similar findings were provided by Bellmore et al. (2007) among middle school students in the United States. Munniksma et al. (2022) found classroom ethnic diversity to be related to worse social adjustment. Altogether, the link between school and classroom composition and the formation of cross-ethnic relationships among students has not been sufficiently researched and requires more investigation. It is useful to consider that the proportion of refugees coming into the individual schools and classrooms can usually be adjusted by the city-level policymakers and school management.
Integration in social networks as an essential component of social integration
The theoretical framing of social integration has evolved over the last hundred years. It has been established that social integration denotes the level of an individual’s functioning within a wider social group. The ability of an individual to function within a social group is necessarily dependent on the interpersonal relationships they maintain with other members of the social group, as humans are innately social beings with a constant desire for interpersonal attachments and a need for belonging (Baumeister and Leary, 1995). Naturally, social integration of an individual encompasses more than just having relationships with other members of the group—a pivotal role is played by the quality of the relationships with others and by the level to which goals, values, and language are shared among the individuals (Callahan, 2009; Evans and Liu, 2018; Herrero and Gracia, 2004; Thorlindsson and Bjarnason, 1998). However, the ability to form and maintain interpersonal relationships with other members of a group, providing a sense of attachment and belonging, is arguably the essential component of successful social integration in any group. Without meaningful relationships with other members of a social group, an individual’s functioning in the group is severely limited. The understanding of the importance of interpersonal attachments has led to a shift in the understanding of social integration, from role-based measures (e.g., Moen et al., 1992; Thoits, 1986) to measures based on interpersonal relationships (e.g., Cohen, 1991), and, more recently, to measures based on social networks (e.g., Hoffman et al., 2015; Rodkin et al., 2007; Wölfer et al., 2012).
Social network theory is highly complementary to the current understanding of social integration. Network theory asserts that to understand a social system, it is important to study how the individuals within that social system interact, what the whole structure of the interactions looks like, and what positions those individuals hold within the structure. As interpersonal relationships are inherently dyadic and dependent on the decisions of at least two individuals involved, social network analysis further asserts it is also important to assess the directionality of the relationships—both how each individual perceives others and how others perceive the individual. Network theory provides a framework for representing the real-world social structures as graphs and makes it possible to study the generative processes driving the network structures (Borgatti et al., 2009). Integrating Blau’s (1960) theory of social integration and network theory (Borgatti and Lopez-Kidwell, 2014; Brissette et al., 2000), social integration represents an interactional and relational process in which members of a group form a cohesive social structure with each member both attracted to and attractive for others in the group in such a way that their relationships provide functional social support and equality. Social network analysis allows us to assess an individual’s level of integration within a group by looking at how interconnected the individual is with others.
Integrating the paradigm seeing social integration as an interactional process and the paradigm of social networks, we understand the integration of a student within peer social networks as an essential component of the student’s social integration within the school’s social system, necessary for the student’s social and academic functioning (Hoffman et al., 2015; Jiang and Altinyelken, 2022; Stinson and Antia, 1999). We understand student integration in school social networks (Stadtfeld et al., 2019; Windzio, 2015) as the degree to which students are interconnected with each other through friendship ties and the degree to which students are excluded by their classmates.
Context of the present study
The Czech educational system has placed a high priority on integrating Ukrainian students into mixed classrooms—i.e., classrooms including both Czech and Ukrainian students and the Czech government was explicit about not wanting segregated Ukrainian-only classrooms. Recognising the importance of successful social integration for the refugee students to ensure a good quality and equitable education, the Czech government has emphasised the need for successful social integration since the beginning of the invasion. In addition to the immediate benefits of social integration related to their academic outcomes, the Czech government expected that a significant number of the Ukrainian refugee students would remain in the Czech Republic indefinitely—eventually becoming a workforce for the Czech economy and members of the Czech society (Ministry of Education, 2022a; 2022c; Ministry of Interior, 2022). The Ministry of Education (2022b) launched a specialised web portal for schools with resources on how to deal with the influx of Ukrainian refugees; however, there were no specific guidelines on how to deal with the social integration of refugees.
Aiming to map the quickly developing situation in Czech schools and evaluate the process of social integration of Ukrainian refugee students, in April and May 2022, the Czech School Inspectorate (CSI) conducted a survey of 626 elementary schools that had ten or more enrolled refugees. The CSI survey was conducted mostly on the basis of inspector visits in the schools and interviews with school management. The CSI concluded that Czech schools were taking appropriate steps to promote the social integration of the Ukrainian students in mixed classrooms and that the social integration of Ukrainian students was adequate (Novosák et al., 2022). According to the CSI, almost all schools took some steps to promote the smooth start of school attendance for the Ukrainian refugees and approximately one fifth of the schools provided adaptation programmes comprised of intensive Czech language lessons and socialisation activities for groups of Ukrainian students. Additionally, the CSI noted that the relationships between Ukrainian and Czech students within the schools were generally positive, with most schools displaying mixed Ukrainian-Czech peer groups, and Czech students consistently demonstrating a willingness to assist their Ukrainian counterparts (Novosák et al., 2022).
Present study
We found the reports from the CSI to be intriguing, since the results of numerous previous studies dealing with the integration of refugee students in peer social networks have presented a different picture (e.g., Alivernini et al., 2019; Bianchi et al., 2021; Cheung and Llu, 2012; Campigotto et al., 2022; Schachner et al., 2016; Titzmann and Silbereisen, 2009). We assumed that the positive findings reported by the CSI could be related to the wave of solidarity with Ukrainian refugees and the strong support for the inclusion of Ukrainian pupils in Czech schools expressed by the Czech government and the Ministry of Education. We therefore decided to investigate the situation in the beginning of the 2022/2023 school year.
We provide a brief insight into the integration of Ukrainian refugees into social networks in Czech lower secondary school classrooms with the use of social network analysis. Our research is relevant to researchers, educators, and policymakers dealing with an influx of refugee students into the educational system. We address two research gaps—we provide early evidence on the peer relationships of refugees in the context of the Ukrainian refugee crisis, and we provide evidence on the influence of classroom composition on the formation of peer relationships with a focus specifically on classrooms with refugee students. Hence, we have two aims:
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to map the level to which Ukrainian refugee students are integrated within peer social networks by capturing two inverse dimensions—friendship and exclusion ties;
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to link the classroom ethnic composition to the level of integration of Ukrainian refugee students in peer social networks.