The Sirius Network

Created in 2011, the Sirius Network is a European Policy Network seeking to improve policy implementation processes in the field of the education of children and young people with a migrant background throughout EU Member States. Made up of NGOs promoting migrants' rights and integration, students' and teachers' unions and associations, as well as think tanks and academic organizations, the Sirius Network is supported by policymakers at EU and national levels.

The policy brief

In the context of the Sirius Network Final Conference, that took place in Brussels on 19-20 November 2014, Miquel Angel Essomba, Sirius general coordinator, has contributed to this policy brief discussing how to improve education policies for migrant children and students at the EU level as well as within each Member State.

When it comes to migrant education, the key findings are the following:

• Children and youngsters with a migrant background tend to underperform in classrooms compared to their native peers.
• Children of migrant background have a number of critical education needs that mainstream education policy does not currently meet.
• Education systems can adapt to respond to these urgent needs. To this end, three key strategies might be combined: adopting a community approach (attention to the relationship between school and community); shifting to a systemic strategy (interprofessional collaboration rather than piecemeal practice) and moving from an integration to an inclusion framework (education as tool of socialization)

The overall policy brief can be found enclosed or read via this link.