Children migrants & Third Culture Kids. Roots and Routes. International Conferen ****************************************************************************************** * Agnieszka Trąbka ****************************************************************************************** Roots and Routes of children migrants The period of the late 20th and early 21st centuries is sometimes called "the age of migra and Miller 2009). The number of migrants is estimated at 214 million people, which means t constitute the fifth most populous country in the world. Stephen Castles and Mark Miller c only the number of migrants is rising, but also new forms of migrations are emerging. Enla the European Union in 2004 and in 2009 resulted in a new wave of migrations from Central-E to Britain, Ireland and the Scandinavian countries. Recently, due to the economic crisis, decided to return. Among these new tendencies we can also mention feminization of migratio parenting and blurring the boundaries between traditional categories of home and host coun and tourism. Migration studies focusing on these phenomena rarely consider the role of chi migration process and the impact of migration on children. The international conference en Migrants & Third Culture Kids. Roots and Routes" which took place at the Jagiellonian Univ Poland) was aimed at filling this gap in migration studies and focused primarily on childr three-day conference we could listen to and discuss 65 papers scheduled in 14 parallel ses as three plenary lectures and a panel discussion. Overall nearly 100 people from 12 Europe the United States, Canada and Japan participated in this event. They represented different among which the most prominent were sociology, psychology, religious studies, anthropology different non-governmental organizations dealing with children migrants and refugees. The held under the honorary patronage of Ms. Irina Bokowa, Director-General of UNESCO, Mr. Rad Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, Mr. Marek Michalak, The Ombudsman f Poland and Prof. Dr. Hab. Maria-Jolanta Flis, Vice-Rector for Jagiellonian University Deve After the opening of the conference by Prof. Maria Flis, the first speaker, Prof. Halina G Moszczyńska discussed the need for interdisciplinary research of children's migration and for the entire conference. She focused on psychological problems of children migrants and the issues of attachment to space and to people and suggested that psychologists should ta at young migrants from the perspective of the attachment theory (John Bowlby, Mary Ainswor plenary lecture by Prof. Ewa Nowicka was focused on scholarly education of immigrants in P of scholarly education of children migrants was one of the leading topics during the confe one of the afternoon parallel sessions religious education in the context of migration was turns out that very often (at least in Poland and Belgium) children take part in Catholic even if they are not from a Catholic family. Adam Anczyk mentioned the lack of information (than Catholic) religions in the program of religious education, while Katarzyna Kubin of for Social Diversity identified different problems faced by foreign students in the Polish system. Marie Campigotto revealed how children manage to negotiate between different relig school, at home and in multicultural peer groups. Migration is also a challenge from the linguistic point of view. These issues were discuss Saturday morning. Speakers focused mainly on the acquisition of a second language and its the native language and for cultural identity. Referring to Polish schools Agata Szybura d crucial role of additional classes of Polish as a foreign and second language in pupils' a the context of the above-mentioned problems the question of how to choose the best school situation becomes fundamental. Agnieszka Hennel-Brzozowska argued that international schoo option for children migrants, because being "foreign" is a norm there, so even newly arriv are not stereotyped or marginalized and school employees are experienced in dealing with t and adaptation issues. Danau Tanu however, basing his ideas on fieldwork in an internation Jakarta, indicated that international schools are in fact Western or American/British when the curriculum and teachers' nationalities. Saturday's plenary lecture "Education for a li hegemonic construct? Schooling in the British Empire, in France and in Canada, 1830s-2000s Hoerder tackled issues of educational policy from a historical and comparative perspective of "Cultures in Contact" analyzed how curricula constructed by representatives of dominant aimed at transmitting to colonized or immigrant youth the values and attitudes of this cul demonstrated how colonized or immigrants' children have a broader perspective with the abi between at least two cultural contexts or negotiate between them. Another important question raised during the conference was the influence of migration on and especially on motherhood. When it comes to migrating parents there are two concurrent on the one hand, interviews conducted with Polish migrant mothers by Paula Pustulka, Karol Sekuła, Magdalena Ślusarczyk and Krystyna Slany showed the "centrality of children" in the taking into account their future chances, happiness and "welfare". In this light migration expression of good parenting or even self-sacrificing for children. On the other hand, how a discourse of "euro-orphanhood" (the term itself became popular mainly in mass-media, not in which children are perceived as vulnerable victims of parents' decisions. The second pe not take into consideration children's agency, whereas many speakers highlighted the idea children migration from the perspective of structural pressures and agency may be very ins fruitful. Children migrants' agency manifests itself in influencing parents' decisions abo in taking care of younger siblings and different ways of negotiating identity in the migra Identity construction was another prominent subject during the conference. On Friday after Mace-Nazina argued that the age of migration influences the likelihood of identity struggl migrants. Those who changed country in adolescence had more difficulties with adaptation t system, establishing friendships and forming a stable identity in comparison with those wh to adolescence. Katarzyna Wójcikowska explained different identity strategies of Polish re while Agnieszka Radziwinowicz demonstrated that in the case of Mexican children born and b the United States it is very difficult to distinguish between home and host country, betwe re-emigration. Very often these kids lack linguistic and cultural competences to study in country. Consistently with what the title of the conference suggests, a few sessions were dedicated Kids (TCKs). TCK is referred to as "a person who has spent a significant part of his or he years outside his/her parent's culture". The third culture kid builds relationships to all while not having full ownership in any (Pollock and van Reken 2009: 13). TCKs are usually businessmen, diplomats, scholars, missionaries or employees of transnational companies. Th was coined in the '60s by American sociologists John and Ruth Hill Useem. On Sunday, Ann C conducted a great deal of research on American TCKs, commented on the changes within this last few decades. Agnieszka Trąbka presented six "ideal types" of TCKs' biographies: homec down, uprooted, continuator, nomad and explorer. She argued that Third Culture Kids' traje life depend on their country of origin, their parents' educational strategy and the cycle have experienced. Claudia Vorheyer concentrated on those TCKs who choose for themselves a illustrated the construction of cosmopolitan identity with her biographical research. It s "Transnational Mobiles" play an important role in the process of transnationalisation and national forms of identity. On the one hand, TCKs lead a relatively privileged lifestyle (usually their financial situ they attend prestigious schools and colleges, they know foreign languages, new technologie other hand, they very often experience serious problems in adapting to their passport coun and have difficulties in constructing a cohesive and integral identity. A number of psycho and psychologists present at the conference explored these issues thoroughly, highlighting identity struggles, difficulties in social relations, conflicts within the family and low result of being uprooted so many times. Last but not least, numerous problems experienced by refugees and asylum seekers were iden conference. Luzia Jurt talked about family separation in the process of asylum seeking and of reunification among refugees in Switzerland. Bahnaz Tavakoi shed light on multiple disc experienced by Afghan girls seeking asylum in Iran, while Joanna Grzymała-Moszczyńska and Łukasiewicz examined discriminatory practices toward children migrants in detention centre Subsequently, some good practices of work with refugees were presented. Sheila Melzak of t for Young Survivors in Exile insisted on the necessity of providing young asylum seekers w psychological help and the need of strengthening their resilience. Katharina Benedetter an presented Cultural Orientation Trainings organized by the International Organization for M unaccompanied minor refuges in Austria. It is impossible to recapitulate in this short paper all the topics discussed during this nor to mention every speaker. The conference proved that the migration of children is an i which demands more attention not only from academic researchers, but also of teachers, psy social workers and policy makers. Hopefully the East-Central-European Network for Research Migrants established by Beatrix Bukus after the conference and the Sirius Network focused of Children with migrant background will draw attention to the subject of children migrati Agnieszka Trąbka [ URL "LM-402.html "]