School Friends of an Adolescent with Migrant Background

Abstract

The issues of integration of migrant children in the large cities are in the focus of this article. The authors discuss the social and cultural boundaries facing an adolescent with the experience of transmigration, and describe the role of his school friends in the overcoming of these boundaries. Based on one illustrative case the paper shows how the peers constitute a teenager’s environment of friendly communication, namely the one of positive emotional exchange, learning the necessary cultural youth competencies, going beyond parental and ethnic social networks, which contributes to the inclusion into a local territorial community. Empirical data include observations in one of the city districts, interviews with high school students and teachers of several schools in St. Petersburg.