GIF-Project „Migration Related Discourse in Classrooms: Understanding Youth Citizenship Vocabularies“

Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Nina Kolleck, Prof. Dr. Miri Yemini (Technion – Israel Institute of Technology)

Project Duration: 2026–2028

Funding Organization: German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (GIF)

Grant Number: I-3007-117.4/2026

Project Description:

The project aims to investigate how young people perceive migration and how they relate migration-related discourses to notions of citizenship, social responsibility, and civic engagement. At its core, the project examines the vocabularies of citizenship developed and used by young people and explores how these vocabularies are shaped by different societal and educational contexts.

The project builds on the observation that migration is increasingly shaping social and political developments across Europe and that schools play an important role in preparing young people for democratic participation in pluralistic societies. While the implications of migration for education and integration have been extensively studied, considerably less is known about how young people themselves interpret migration and the meanings they attribute to it in relation to active citizenship and civic engagement.

Empirically, the project employs an international comparative research design encompassing Germany, Sweden, Italy, and Poland. Moderated deliberative discussion groups with upper-secondary school students are used to explore young people's perspectives, narratives, and interpretative frameworks. In particular, the project investigates the extent to which and the ways in which students with and without migration backgrounds connect migration to social responsibility, active citizenship, and civic engagement.

Through the systematic comparison of different European contexts, the project seeks to advance our understanding of young people's perspectives on migration, citizenship, and societal participation. The findings will contribute to research on education and Global Citizenship Education and provide new insights for democratic education and schools' engagement with migration-related societal discourses.