Learning to Adapt? Leave and Arrival as Major Psycho-Social Challenges for Newly Arrived Adolescent Immigrants in Germany

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse and discuss how learning is experienced by young, newly arrived immigrants in Germany. In particular, it addresses the connection between their experiences and the expectations of the German education system, as well as the connection between different kinds of learning experiences (formal and informal) in the context of adolescence. Adolescence is understood as an intergenerationally shaped psycho-social space of developmental opportunities. It is always affected and formed by aspects of social inequality such as milieu, gender, and race. Research shows that when migration takes place during adolescence, young people must cope with a “doubled transformation requirement” (King and Schwab). This paper discusses whether adolescent immigrants face even more transformation requirements—again, interwoven with learning—than two. Based on cases taken from two qualitative-interview-study samples, I reconstruct how coping strategies in terms of psycho-social development can be associated with different kinds of learning. Finally, I emphasise the responsibility of formal education as a supportive framework and stabilising factor for child and adolescent immigrants after they reach Germany.