Power,Education and Migration into Ireland

Due to globalisation, recent decades have seen a rapid change in the demographic and cultural composition of countries across Europe. The number of migrant children in the receiving countries has also increased. In this framework, the right to education of migrant children and equality of access to schools has become an important policy issue. This article focuses on the ways schools in Ireland address increased cultural diversity among the pupil population and in so doing discusses the overt and covert power relations present in the education system that are likely to disadvantage migrant pupils. It draws on teachers' perspectives with regard to their perception of migrant students as well as the perspectives of native Irish and migrant pupils. The article utilises data gathered for a large-scale mixed methods study on the experiences of ethnic minority children in Irish schools, the first of its kind in Ireland. The analysis of the data highlights the unequal power dynamics in schools system and how this impacts on the experiences of migrant students and their parents.