Educational Disadvantages During COVID-19 Pandemic Faced by Migrant Schoolchildren in Poland

Experiencing migration in childhood affects social, educational, and psychological aspects of child development. Migrant children are prone to educational setbacks, which may be further exacerbated by concurrent crises. This study examines the so-called transnational transitions of migrant schoolchildren in Poland by treating distance learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic as a new vulnerability factor. This study adopts Merton’s concept of cumulative (dis)advantages (the “Matthew effect”) and combines it with the modern framing of the digital divide developed by Ragnedda and Ruiu. The data are drawn from a qualitative study with migrant children, their parents, and teachers, in which interviews were conducted during the initial COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. The findings demonstrate that migration experience, distance learning, and the digital divide overlap in producing educational inequalities among migrant schoolchildren in Poland.