Ðàçìåùåíî íà http://www.allbest.ru/

Second Year of MA Political Analysis and Public Policy

Department of Public Policy, HSE

Master Thesis

“Education policies for migrant schoolchildren in Moscow Region (2010-2015): Lessons from the Californian experience on migrant schoolchildren integration”

Student:

Kamaev Artem

Supervisor:

Edgar Demetrio Tovar-Garcia

Moscow 2016

Contents

Shortcoming in the literature

Chapter 1. Theoretical approach and previous empirical findings

1.1 Russia and migration

1.2 Migration background and educational outcomes

Chapter 2. New empirical evidence for Moscow

2.1 The data and variables

2.2 Empirical strategy

2.3 SPSS analysis interpretation

Chapter 3. Analysis of public policies for migrant schoolchildren in Moscow and California

3.1 US as a country of migrants and for migrants

3.2 Analysis of legislation to migrant schoolchildren in Russia and USA

3.3 MIPEX as a research framework for the study

Conclusion

Reference list (Bibliography)

Annotation

Shortcoming in the literature

Present work is a logical continuation of my term paper, which was conducted last year. The theme of the study was “Migration background and educational achievements: Analysis of public policies for migrant schoolchildren in Moscow.” The goal of the study was to understand what makes migrant schoolchildren successful or unsuccessful in Moscow schools. It was essential to understand whether there were any differences among migrant and local pupils in Moscow schools. The research question was “How does migrant background influence educational achievements of schoolchildren in Moscow?” The study demonstrated that migration background does not influence academic results of pupils. In that case what does make schoolchildren successful in Moscow schools? Firstly, one of the key factors is age: younger children showcase better results. Secondly, being female also increases the probabilities of being classified as a successful student. Female pupils performed better results than male pupils. As for the socio-economic status, which was estimated with a number of gadgets used by family members, it does not influence the probability of being an excellent student. Similarly, health conditions do not affect the probability of obtaining the highest grades. Overall, this paper required further study and led to the current research.

The issue of migrant schoolchildren is not new. Millions of people are crossing borders of numerous countries every day. They do it legally and illegally. They move their families and travel on their own. The evidence of this is an annual Migration report that is made by International Organization for Migration (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs/Population Division, 2013). The issue of migrant schoolchildren is scientifically researched in Europe and in the US. However, this topic is not properly studied in Russia. There is a couple of studies, which were conducted on the subject that was held in Saint-Petersburg branch of Higher School of Economics (D. A. Alexandrov, Ivaniushina, & Kazartseva, 2015a; D. Alexandrov, Baranova, & Ivaniushina, 2012a; Eugenia Lukianova, 2011).

Nowadays, researchers pay increasing attention to the problems of migrant communities and migrant schoolchildren (Hao & Woo, 2012, Crosnoe, 2005). The reason why immigrant issues became popular is that a rapid increase in the number of immigrants in the United States, where every fifth child is from an immigrant family (DeSilva & Elmelech, 2012). This statistics could be observed not only in the US, but also in many European countries. The latest trends show an increase in migrant population in Russia, for this reason I am interested in the present research. As for the USA, children of immigrants (i.e., at least one foreign-born parent) are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population under 18 years of age (Mendoza, 2009). Since school performance by children of immigrants is generally a good barometer of their future contribution to the society (Suarez-Orozco, 2001), it is in the best interest of the nation and youth to identify factors that can promote adolescents' educational success, especially for youth from immigrant families.

There is a huge scope of researches that are connected with the theme of migrant education (Plunkett, Behnke, Sands, & Choi, 2009). These researches relate to the themes of children, education, migrant communities, and migrant adaptation and so on. There are even different schools to study migrant children. These approaches differ in accordance with objects and questions of the study. As a key example, Portes and Rumbaut( 2005) and Portes (1987) using the segmented assimilation theory argue that immigrant children's adaptation will depend on how the children and their parents are treated by governmental policies as well as how they are received by the institutions, individuals, and co-ethnic immigrants in their local communities.

There are many reasons that can influence children's' achievements. Cities faced with large ethnic enclaves that do not speak a native language well, for instance, require information on the consequences of such cultural retention; the achievement of the children from these communities is one such consequence (Conger, Schwartz, & Stiefel, 2011). Many ethnographies have documented a strong influence of concentrated and highly resourced immigrant communities on their children's adjustment (Gibson, 1988).

US experience, in particular Californian experience, was not chosen accidently. The theme of migration is one of the most developed in the USA. The scope of the study varies from the migrant prisoners to the inter-ethnical migrant families. Moreover, the issue of migrant schoolchildren is also well designed. For instance, a huge number of researches compare Black, Hispanic, Chinese immigrant children. Kevin J.A. Thomas, professor of Sociology and Demography at the Pennsylvania State University, analyzed how family background influence socio-economic differences among immigrant and local children of Blacks, and between Black and non-black children of immigrants (Thomas, 2011). This research is focused only on Blacks, but also there is a division on migrants and non-migrants, Blacks and Whites. The research question of the survey is how family context affects the overall assimilation of the migrant schoolchildren. The data for the survey is a 2000 census that can demonstrate the poverty rate among young migrant children. The hypothesis is the differences in socio-economic assimilation among black and white children are affected with the parental cultural, social and economic endowments. These endowments have less effect among black immigrants. The results showed that black migrant families face more structural problems improvement of their welfare improvement than non-black families do. Moreover, the study shows that the child poverty rate among immigrant black families is lower in immigrant families than in black US families.

The theme of poverty and migrant children is becoming more and more popular. Present changes in immigrant population provide researches with more opportunity for developing this field. One transformation is a significant increase of black migrants to the United States (Thomas, 2011). Some experts claim that there is a significant racial hierarchy among all the racial minorities. This hierarchy establishes various constraints that face black migrants and their families (Bashi & McDaniel, 1997). Moreover, skin color is also examined as a barrier for social mobility of black schoolchildren in the US (White et al., 2011). The strongest effect on scientific development of migration issues has researches of Princeton University. For instance, the work of Sandy Baum and Stella M. Flores contributes to the development migrants' students and higher education (Baum & Flores, 2011). They claim there are a scope of indicators that influence the performance of migrant students in schools and universities. They found out that except migration status educational achievements are affected by country of origin, sex, race, socioeconomic status, parental background. Moreover, there are external barriers that influence migrant schoolchildren in the USA. These are communities, types of school, legal boundaries, and physiological limitations. Also, the theme of access of undocumented migrants discussed in many articles (Bozick & Miller, 2014; Potochnick, 2014).

Additionally, the study of immigrant schoolchildren is not only about children. It is also devoted to the scientific analysis of adaptive instruments for migrants to be integrated to the society. In particular, there is a number of researches about early care for migrant children (Chilton & Handal, 2013; Hu & Szente, 2010; Stevens & Vollebergh, 2008). For instance, K. Lynn and G. Gonzalez from Harvard University prepared one of the following analysis (Karoly & Gonzalez, 2011). They studied the present role and the future of early care education (ECE) state and private programs in providing adaptive environment for migrant schoolchildren. The hypothesis is that ECE centers give long-term and short-term benefits for migrant children as they go to though school and adulthood. As authors claim, there are three main limitations for migrants to be integrated the society. These are language misunderstandings, bureaucratic intricacy, and distrust for government.

K. Lynn and G. Gonzalez used American Community Survey 2005-2006, which consists of the data from around 16 million immigrant children for us it is important that 50 percent of these children are from California. The results showed that ECE programs have a positive impact on migrant schoolchildren adaptation. However, there are internal and external issues. Internal issue is about problems, which migrant families have living in the USA. These are low income, lack of parental education, language barriers. External issue devoted to the problems with governmental bodies, which are responsible for implementation of ECE. As you can see, the scope of researches devoted to migrant schoolchildren is immense.

Research Problem

Is it possible to stop migration processes in the world? The answer would be definitely negative. That is one of the reasons, why migration became a perspective field study. It is a widespread phenomenon, which has not only local, but also global effects. Migration is an actual problem that related to the issues of poverty, “failed states”, problems of unrecognized areas and other c issues that are faced now by the whole world community and individual states.

The scope of migration issues is enormous. There are problems related to human rights violations, criminal and legal shortcomings. The focus of this research is devoted to migration issues, which took place in Moscow, Russia.

Present research is a second part of a two-year study of migration in Moscow. The problem being addressed in this study was directly connected with correlation between educational background of migrant pupils in Moscow's schools and their educational achievements. For the master thesis, I will add to the research the lessons and experience of California in adaptation of migrant pupils, to try to figure out what kind of policies, programs or projects could be useful for Russia in general and for Moscow region in particular.

Firstly, let us understand the Russian reality case. What is the issue? What controversy leads to the need for the study? According to data of Federal State Statistics Service (“External migration to Russia 2005-2013”, n.d.), the number of international migrants to Russia is increasing dramatically. You can see this statistics on the Figure 1. Russian government attempts to regulate migration flows through the laws Federal laws: "On Citizenship of the Russian Federation" dated 31 May 2002 "On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation" dated 25 July 2002 "On Refugees" 19 February 1993 "On the Procedure for Exit from the Russian Federation and Entry the Russian Federation "dated 15 August 1996" On Migration Registration of Foreign Citizens and stateless Persons in the Russian Federation "dated July 18, 2006. , various “national concepts” and strategies The concept of regulation of migration processes in the Russian Federation from March 1, 2003, the concept of demographic policy until 2025, the Strategy of the State National Policy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025.. These are Presidential decrees, State National Development Strategy 2020 etc. However, every effort has failed and has no beneficial effect on the society. For instance, Professor of HSE Saint Petersburg, Gregory Tulchinsky compares the Russian society with disjoined. Simultaneously, 15-20% is an average percentage of migrants who move to Russia with their children in accordance with the Institute of Demography of HSE Speech at the conference "Migrant children: protection of human rights and strengthening the capacity of non-profit organizations that provide them with assistance." Civic Center. AD Sakharov. Moscow. December 17, 2010: Admission of migrant children to education and health services.. That causes another problem. The more children of migrants live in Russia, the more educational issues arise. Ibidem There are problems of adaptation of migrants, communication and cultural problems.

Figure 1. External migration to Russia

Figure 1. Statistics. External migration to Russia 2005-2013. Copyright 2013 by Federal Statistic Service. Reprinted with permission.

The issue is that the number of migrants is increasing. There is a lack of the institutes of migrant's adaptation in Moscow. Especially, there is a lack of migrant children policy in Russia. There are only eleven schools in Moscow that provide Russian language courses (“Adaptation of migrant schoolchildren in schools of Saint Petersburg and Ulyanovsk”, n.d.). Furthermore, there are just a few schools in other regions of the Russian Federation. There is the problem of not knowing local language and culture. Nevertheless, educational achievements of migrant schoolchildren is directly connected with Russian economic development. These people will contribute to our economy. It is up to Russian Government to cope with this problem.

However, the logical question could arise. Why should Russia focus on the United States experience in implementing policies, programs or projects for adaptation of the children of migrants? There are two reasons, which can explain the choice of the USA and California in particular. The first reason is political and historical. Obviously, the USA is a country of migrants. It has the earliest migrants' legislation. The Naturalization Act was established in the 1790. It established basis of migrants' assimilation and integration to the US (Brown & McLeman, 2013). Thus, the USA has the very first and developed legislation in the sphere. Second reason is statistical. The USA is a leader in a number of migrants worldwide. It has more than 40 million of migrants.

Figure 2. Numerical Size and Share of the Foreign-Born Population in the United States

Figure 2. Numerical Size and Share of the Foreign-Born Population in the United States. Copyright 2013 by United Nations Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Reprinted with permission.

According to the last figures, there are 232 million of migrants in the world. It is about 3.2 percent of population of the Earth. The USA is the first country with 41.3 million migrants living in the country. It is about 13 percent of US population. Russia has 11 million migrants. It is on the second place worldwide. Germany is on the third place. Thus, the choice of the USA can be explained by the fact that the US is the world leader in a number of migrants, while the Russian Federation is on the second place. As it was stated, the USA is a country with the highest amount of migrants. As we already presented the statistics about the US in common, let us focus on California.

California is one of the most densely populated state in the US. It is in top five states with the highest growth of migrants per year. Nowadays, there are about 1.5 million migrants in California (“Frequently Requested Statistics”, n.d.). It has the most developed system of local governmental regulation of migration. Forty nine percent of children in California who are under 18 live with migrant parents. Thus, there are 4,3 million children who live in a families with at least one migrant. California is on the first place on this indicator. In addition, California has the biggest amount of naturalized citizens in all the US. This number is more than one hundred sixty four thousands. It is 21% of all naturalizes citizens in the US. All the migrant challenges led to the development of unique system of migrants' regulation.

Who will profit from our study? This study helps both educators and policy makers. Local policy makers and workers of social sphere might be interested in the study because they face expansions of immigrant populations. Large fluctuations of immigrant populations are experienced by many districts and individual schools (Ellen, O'Regan, & Conger, 2009). The questions they might be interested in are “What can explain the failures of immigrant schoolchildren?”, “How can the Government adapt migrant schoolchildren?”, “Which techniques can be transferred from the USA practice to Russia?” The role of immigrant communities in accordance with educational achievements of pupils should be understood by policymakers and politicians. Moreover, social workers and teachers need to understand the specific of educational issues of migrants and lessons that they can get from their US colleagues.

Research Question

Given this, the main research question is “How migration background influence educational achievements of school students in Moscow region, and which are the implications for education policy?

To answer the second part of the main question, I focus on policies, programs, and projects developed in California, USA (for the reasons above explained), and I discuss the possibilities for Russia and Moscow to learn from the Californian experience on migrant schoolchildren integration.

Research Design. Methods and Data

First part of present research is devoted to the quantitative survey. I used the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey - Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE), which is a series of nationally representative surveys designed to monitor the effects of Russian reforms on the health and economic welfare of households and individuals in the Russian Federation (“Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey”, n.d.). Preliminary data source method is regression analysis. Dependent variable is academic achievements, while independent one is migration status, sex, age, and type of school.

Second part is about qualitative survey. We analyze the instruments and technics of migrant schoolchildren integration to society. We examine the experience of the USA and California in particular.

Goal of the Study

The goal of the study is to determine the impacts of migration status on educational achievements, and identify the best practices on this concern from the Californian education policy to try to figure out which policies can be applicable and useful for Moscow and Russia.

Research tasks

There are several tasks, which we set in our study.

§ Operationalize main definitions and concepts that are used in this research

§ Correlate migrant schoolchildren background in Moscow's schools with their educational achievements

§ Analyze the educational and political experience of the US in common and California in particular

§ Compare the Californian experience and the Moscow experience on migrant school students concerns

§ Synthesize findings of the study

Novelty of research

This research contributes to the theoretical development of study of migrant schoolchildren in Moscow region and in Russia. I would like to analyses practices that are used in California to understand which of them can be implemented to Moscow. This analysis can provide us with the experience California has for a long period. As there is a lack of theoretical and practical knowledge in Russian migrant study and policy-making, we can gain the experience of the USA. This research will be unique and useful for increasing the interest to this field in Russian Federation. Moreover, we should be ready for the changes, which all the Europe and US have. Migration flows are increasing dramatically and it seems that the process would not be stopped easily.

Contributions of the Dissertation

My research is unique and it will contribute for the development of theoretical basis on migrant schoolchildren in Russia. One of the task of resent research is to attract the attention of the society to the problems of migrant children have in Moscow. As it was written before, there are few researches on the theme of migrant schoolchildren in Russia, which were held in Saint Petersburg, Ulyanovsk. There is no alike research in Moscow. That is why we decided to broaden theoretical part of the theme to Russian reality.

There is no doubt that the themes of migrants, migrant labor, and illegal migration are extremely popular. There are many researches on the theme. Unfortunately, the issue of migrant schoolchildren has almost not been covered. Thus, this research will broaden the framework of Russian migration studies.

Chapter 1. Theoretical approach and previous empirical findings

Consequently, the advantageous economic environment leads to the rise of migration, which is taking place from the XV century up to these days. As Moscow is taking a leading role on all counts, the situation with migration in the city reflects all the country's trend. The number of migrants is consistently growing. According to the Federal Migration Service, there are 2 million migrants in Moscow and 2,5 million migrants in Moscow region (“Moscow is home to two million illegal migrants”, n.a.). Compared to the same period of the last year the number of migrants increased by almost 50%. However, the point is that the data is quite scattered. Every Governmental Service has its own statistics. For instance, D.V. Poletaev provides with the following data.

Moscow is the capital of migrants. According to the population census 2010, every second resident of Moscow (aged 25-30 years) did not resident in the city in 1989 (“On the results of the National Population Census”, n.a.). The permanent population of Moscow is replenished mainly due to the influx of migrants from Russia, which in 2012 gave 90% of migrants who arrived in Moscow (Kitova K, 2012). Only 10% of migrants come from foreign countries, and half of them had Russian citizenship (“Migration in megapolis”, n.a.). According to Rosstat, the total number of external and internal migrants who arrived in Moscow in 2012, data, was 205.5 thousand. More than half of arrivals (56%) were registered at the new place of residence, 40.2% were registered at the place of residence, 3.8% were Muscovites, who returned home after a temporary stay in another place (Migration, 2012). Moscow FMS data differs from the data of Rosstat in larger scale and in very different proportions of migration flows. Thus, the Moscow FMS put on the account and transferred from the previous year 1,763.4 thousand foreigners in 2012 (“Migration in megapolis”, n.a.). It is important to notice that the data of 2012 year is used in the analysis because there is no contemporary and comprehensive data available.

The main flow of international migrants in Moscow, as in Russia, comes from the CIS countries. According to the FMS, the average amount is about 68% in 2012. The leading flow of migrants is coming from Uzbekistan, followed by flows from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. In general, three Central Asian countries gave 41.5% of the total flow. Among the countries outside the CIS, it is possible to highlight Germany, Turkey, USA, Italy, UK and France.

What are the conflict points of contact among migrants and local people in Moscow? The research was conducted by the laboratory of Socio-Cultural Research of Higher School of Economics in Moscow and Stavropol region. Focus groups were used to analyze the difference between these two regions. There are a number of valuable conclusions of this research. Muscovites are set to migrants more aggressively than those in the periphery are. Migrants harder to adapt to Moscow because of the pressure that provokes modern life in the city. In addition, migrants do not accept immoral way of life of the local population and require that local people should show respect for their ethnic culture. Migrants are unwilling to change their attitude to the role of women in the family and society being in a different cultural environment. Moreover, migrants perceive the fact that Moscow man and woman have equal rights as a sign of weakness of local men (“Muscovites and migrants do not understand”, n.a.). According to the poll, only 14% of Muscovites are willing to live next to a family of migrants from the North Caucasus. More than a half of respondents partly or fully support the idea of “Russia for Russian ethnic group” (“Migration policy FOM”, n.a.). According to the survey of Levada Center, Muscovites are more negative attitude to Caucasians, immigrants from the former Soviet Central Asian republics, Chinese and Vietnamese (“Nationalism, xenophobia and migration”, n.a.).

It is also important to highlight the special role of mass media. According to the research made by HSE laboratory of Socio-Cultural studies, both migrants and local people assess the role of media in shaping negative mutual perceptions. In the view of migrants, Russian media form an image of the criminal and terrorist migrant. A representation of Muscovites media contribute to unwanted influx of migrants to the capital, positioning Moscow as a city of great opportunities and losing coverage of the difficulties that may be encountered people who came to the capital. Despite, mass media is an important instrument in formation of tolerant environment in the society (Dzyaloshinsky, I. n.d.).

Thus, the number of migrants is increasing. However, there is visible misunderstanding among migrants and local people. As surveys showed, migrants are not ready to adopt to new qualities of life in a modern city. They want locals to respect and follow their “proper” customs. Consequently, locals encounter this behavior negatively. Muscovites do not want to change their classical points of view because of migrants. All this situation is frequently use to mass media advantage, which have one's own political and selfish reasons.

Children of Migrants

As it was stated, the number of migrants is increasing. There are various types of migrants. Every migrant has one's one aim of movement to another country or subject of Russia. Most of them come for reasons of unemployment in their home countries or subjects. Some of them come for necessary or political reasons. Coming to another countries or subject, individual people decide to take their children with them. The study will focus on this segment of society.

The problem of migrant schoolchildren adaptation is becoming actual today. According to the statistics of Federal Migration Service, there are about 70 000 migrant schoolchildren in Moscow (“We are illegal, the children of the workers”, n.a.). However, the figures vary, as there is no specific research on the migrant children not only in Moscow, but also in all the Russian Federation. Remarkably, even deputies of the Russian Parliament who are trying to toughen laws against migrants do not know the exact figures of migrant children (“Duma may limit the use of migrant children in school”, n.a.). According to the calculations the Department of Education, about 30 thousand children of foreign nationals studying in 2012 in Moscow schools. However, as it was mentioned before FMS assessed the number of migrants in 70 thousand. It is important to remember that by migrants we understand both external and internal children.

The HSE students and the Center of Migration Studies held the research on migrant schoolchildren in Moscow. Sample consisted of 74 people. In accordance with this research, about one-third of the migrants interviewed (37%) reported they have underage children, the vast majority had one or two children (Aleksandrov, Baranova, & Ivanyushina, 2012). According to this research, the average amount of children that migrants take with themselves equals 1,3. This data is almost confirmed with another research, which was held by Y. Florinskaya (Zayonchkovskaya, Florinskaya, Poletaev, & Doronina, 2014a).

According to the data she represented, there are 28 % of women who took their children with to another country. The poll of Moscow residents with children under 18 years of age revealed a widespread of schools that have student's migrants. Thirty five percent of Muscovites indicated coeducation of their children with the children of migrants. As there is a lack of any statistics, we managed to find some figures about 2006-2007 years. According to the Center for Sociological Research at the Ministry of Education of Russia, 23.9 thousand children of foreigners attended Moscow schools in the 2006/2007 academic year (Arefiev, A. n.d.). As for the pre-school institutions, a third of migrant children attend kindergartens in Moscow.

Figure 5. The proportion of migrants with children

There is no special division on migrant schools and school for local pupils. Sometimes, it is a problem for migrants (“Moscow parents rebelled against migrants”, n.a.). Muscovites try not to give the child to a school where there are migrant children. There is no xenophobic background under this choice, but educational and practical one. According to the experts, there are complex reasons for such behavior. For instance, there is a decline in the quality of instruction in schools due to poor knowledge of migrant children the Russian language. Migration in Russia in recent years is becoming more culturally distant arriving migrants have lower levels of education than ever before, and much worse level of proficiency in Russian (Karpova & Vorona, 2014). Often the child migrant does not have the immediate environment, which would guarantee him a quick and successful language adaptation: these children usually do not attend pre-school establishments, are not engaged in groups to prepare for entry into the first grade, do not focus on the various forms of additional language education (Andrienko & Guriev, 2005). In addition, one of the issue is that migrants do not speak Russian at home. They try to save their customs and traditions through the language. However, migrants do not realize the harmful effect of their actions on children.

Another problem is interaction between migrants and local children. The most problematic group of migrant children are children of the republics of the North Caucasus (Dagestan, Chechnya) due to different mentality. According to experts, the boys of the Republic "will grow", "their life experience richer", they are often less infantilism, they know more about life and everyday problems, so they often act as opinion leaders in the classroom.

Tutors also present a challenge for migrant schoolchildren. The system of remuneration of teachers, providing bonuses for extra work, does not contain incentives for the extra effort the teachers working with migrant children. As a result, teachers who work in these classes lose out on wages, despite they have great difficulties teaching in classrooms with migrant children. Experts testified common situation when teachers try to avoid admission to the class of migrant children. The lack of motivation and unfavorable atmosphere in the society influence teachers' attitude to the migrant schoolchildren. An important issue is the availability of opportunities for professional development of school staff. The Ministry of Education does not specifically deal with this problem and does not even have statistics (in any case, an official in the public domain) on the number of migrant children in Moscow schools, their sex and age distribution, the distribution of the countries.

Despite all the disadvantages and cons, the situation with access to the school for children of migrants is relatively favorable (Florinskaya, 2010). As education for migrants is guaranteed with the Constitution of the Russian Federation Law "On Education", the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the regional legislative acts.

1.2 Migration background and educational outcomes

On this graph, the structure of U. U. Bronfenbrenner's basic principles is represented. The uniqueness of the theory is explained by the fact that it reflects changes of children's nature throughout life. U. Bronfenbrenner managed to create a comprehensive model, which can also applied to the issue of children migration.

There is no any problems on the level of microsystem. Family is the only environment, where a child can be oneself. The focus of research will be concentrated on mesosystem. The issues appear when a migrant moves out of family to school, district of residence, and kindergarten. The situation when migration background matters concerns with this research.

Thus, we describe some theories and empirical findings, which will help to explain better present research. The capital theory of P. Bourdieu contributes to the development of the research. The theory of ecological revolution by U. Bronfenbrenner provide with theoretical explanations of migrants' children adaptation to the new environment. In addition, empirical findings of Suárez-Orozco C., Gaytán F. X., Bang H. J., Pakes, J., O'Connor, E., & Rhodes J. explain many theoretical issues of the migrant schoolchildren study.

Empirical findings

In contradiction to Russian migration studies, this topic is widely studied in Europe and the USA.

Professor L.W. Perna (2005) from University of Pennsylvania studied how various capitals or background influence Blacks, Hispanics and Whites educational achievements in school of the US. In particular, she studied economic capital (parents' education, income, occupation and items in the home) (Perna, 2000). Next, academic capital was analyzed: participation in academic curricular program and participation in advanced placement program, and structural capital (public school, urban or rural, and percent of Blacks and Hispanics in the student body). Last ones are social and cultural capital were considered: mothers' expectations, proportion of friends planning to attend a university, and other indicators of the close friends, relative, teacher, guidance counselor and/or coach, and tools as private classes, books, video, computer programs and tutors. Finally, L.W. Perna came to the following conclusions. Blacks and Hispanics had less economic and academic capital than Whites did.