Khaperskaya, Shensin. [Learning difficulties of migrant children in Italy]

Abstract:
According to the latest PISA report (2018), nowadays every sixth pupil in Italian schools is an immigrant. Statistic data show the skyrocketed increase of immigrant children in Italian schools since 2003. According to the Italian Edition of «La Verità», referring to the OCSE (L’Organizzazione per la cooperazione e lo sviluppo economico report (OCSE)- organisation for economic cooperation and development), children with immigration experiences tend to be less successful at school than their peers. If 69 percent of Italian children achieve required by the OCSE outcomes in reading, mathematics and science, only 51% of the first generation of immigrant children can match them. This figure is even lower and falls to 36% if we take into account children who arrived in Italy and were enrolled to comprehensive schools at the age of 12 and older. The main problem of immigrant children at school in the new socio-cultural context, first of all, is language. Then language barrier snowballs other problems. The traumatic experience of relocation, the cultur shock and the conflict of families with new culture, all these have an impact on the way the child feels in the new world and the way s/he experiences difficulties. Among immigrant adolescents one may have a more intensive experience based on internal conflicts such as they face a wrenching sense of loneliness, don’t feel understood or accepted. In this article, we will discuss the most common main learning difficulties among immigrant children, considering the issues of professional readiness of Italian secondary school teachers and the difficulties they have to face with.