Intersectional Perspective on Migrant Children’s Integration in Austrian Schools

This paper explores the integration processes of migrant children in Austrian schools through an intersectional, child-centered lens. It argues that integration should not be seen as a linear, one-dimensional process, but as a complex and dynamic negotiation, where children’s agency interacts with various intersecting power structures. Drawing on eighty-seven interviews and thirteen focus groups with pupils from six secondary schools in Vienna, the study investigates how social categories such as ethnicity, legal status, and socio-economic background intersect to influence migrant children’s educational experiences, social participation, and sense of belonging. The paper critically examines how Austrian integration policies, particularly those related to education and language acquisition, reflect and reinforce broader structures of inequality that shape children’s opportunities and outcomes. It highlights that migrant children are not passive recipients of these policies, but active agents who, within their daily school lives, have the capacity to both reproduce and challenge the power dynamics that shape their integration experiences. By adopting an intersectional child-centered approach, this paper advocates for the necessity of such a framework in understanding and promoting the integration of migrant children. It calls for the development of policies and educational practices that recognize children’s agency, address structural inequalities, and foster more inclusive and supportive environments for migrant children in Austria.