Socialization and development of refugee children: Chances of childcare

Abstract

Europe has recently been experiencing one of the largest immigration movements of the past 70 years. In 2016, over 700,000 people were registered in Germany, mostly from war-affected Middle Eastern countries. Nearly 15% of these people are below the age of six. Contexts of flight pose challenges to child development and to the capacities of psychological and social adjustment. This chapter consolidates evidence on immigrant and refugee families from an integrated psychological, cultural, and educational perspective. In the first part, we review the situation of refugee families in Western countries. We then reflect on the diverse contexts of refugee children and the different influences on their socialization during early childhood. For this purpose, we make use of the developmental niche, an interactional framework by Super and Harkness. In the last section, we sketch an adapted childcare approach that considers the different influences on children from refugee families and deduce guidelines for adapted childcare. Childcare contributes to child development and family adjustment after immigration and sustainably shapes diversifying societies.