After gaining independence in 1991, Slovenia experienced new forms of immigration, a trend which was accelerated by the country's 2004 acceptance into the European Union, which made Slovenia attractive to a variety of immigrant groups, including families with children. However, initial integration efforts were limited, with Slovenia's relevant institutions only having made a serious effort to integrate immigrant children into Slovene society over the last decade. Through these efforts, Slovenia was fulfilling its duty as a signatory of the Convention of Children's Rights, which obliges countries to ensure that immigrant children have the same right to an education as children of Slovenian citizens and requires countries to integrate such children into their education systems. In practice however, despite this established theoretical foundation, there is a discrepancy between the needs of immigrant children and what is being offered to them by the Slovenian education system.
In particular, this research has focused on specific support programmes devised and offered by schools to facilitate the integration of immigrant children, including compensation, support, additional activities, and other forms of help. It also gives an overview of this issue within the Slovenian education system, including how many schools carry out specific integration programmes, what type of support each school is offering, and which factors affect the creation and implementation of such programmes. Moreover, this research also takes into account demographic factors related to each school, including its size, the number of immigrant children at a school, the professional profile of its staff, and the socio-economic background of the surrounding area. It also follows children's experiences throughout this process, investigating how the implementation of such programmes affects the integration of immigrant children into both the school environment and wider society. However, it should be noted that this study does not encompass the additional Slovenian language lessons financed by the Slovenian Ministry for Education, Science and Sport to which all immigrant children are entitled in their first two years following their arrival in the country. Unfortunately, the results of this research paint a dispiriting picture of the provision of integration programmes in the Slovene education system, with the key finding being that immigrant children are not given the attention required to fully integrate them into the school environment, with the result being that the Slovenian education system fails to fully exploit immigrant children's cognitive potential. Language acquisition is a particular problem, resulting in immigrant children that not only struggle in a formal educational environment, but also face difficulties integrating socially and interacting with their peer group. Ultimately, many of the schools which took part in this research felt that they have to find their own way when it comes to the integration of immigrant children, and therefore offer specific programmes that help to integrate immigrant children, with staff at these schools believing that these programmes are effective and facilitate immigrant children and their parents becoming part of the school and local community, leading to immigrant children that are better socialised, have improved self-esteem and feel accepted, all traits which allow them to adapt successfully to their new environment.
In order to successfully integrate immigrant children into the Slovenian education system, the state needs to adopt an active role in this process; including the creation of a well thought out integration policy, specialised training for teachers who work with immigrant children that enables them to develop the skills required, a truly multi-/intercultural curriculum and the provision of sufficient funding to effectively implement this process. It is only this systemic, wide ranging approach that will ensure all immigrant children have an equal role in all areas of society, as well as producing motivated staff that will create and carry out specific learning programmes that will enable the integration of these children. With the model of successful integration of immigrant children, we have built on the findings of the research discussed above, we want to contribute to more holistic view on the issue of integration of immigrant children. Moreover, applicable and orientational value of this model can be implemented in some changes of more efficient integration of immigrant children into Slovenian education system.
The use of various research methods in this study, such as questionnaires and structured interviews, has enabled us to adopt a more comprehensive approach to analysing the integration of first generation immigrant children into Slovenian primary schools.
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