Integration through friendships in school classes – A study of pupils with a migrant background in school friendship networks at primary and secondary schools in Germany

Abstract

This paper deals with the integration of migrant children in informal communication networks in primary and secondary schools in Germany. The basic assumption is that these networks can serve as an indicator for the networking and embedding that take place within the class community and therefore can be used to investigate the integration of pupils with a migrant background. The initial results of our network analytical study reveal that pupils with a migrant background are well integrated into class networks. The study discloses that the migrant background does not serve as a conclusive characteristic of the pattern of class networks. The pupils are more or less networked with each other regardless of their migrant background, though it did emerge that children and adolescents born abroad, in particular, are far more likely to have outgoing relationships that remain unreciprocated. Remarkable is, that results from primary school correspond with data from secondary school.