Conference Agenda

The findings presented in this paper are drawn from an EU funded research project that explores the transition to adulthood from the perspectives of former unaccompanied minor asylum-seeking youth in Finland. Working with 22 youth participants and using a participatory voice-centred relational methodology (VCRM), the project has two research objectives. Research Objective 1 is to better understand the transition to adulthood of former unaccompanied minor youth in Finland. Research Objective 2 has been to innovate new ways of co-constructing knowledge and art with participants. Over the last decade, rates of forced migration to Finland have significantly increased (Finnish Immigration Service, 2025). Unlike some settlement contexts, the Finnish and other Nordic contexts have been argued as being relatively culturally and ethnically homogenous (Haswell et al., 2023). Furthermore, broader global research has demonstrated that a smooth transition to adulthood has been linked to social and economic success as well as wellbeing in the adult years (UNESCO, 2015). As such, better understanding the transition to adulthood of these youth is pertinent.

In my previous research in Australia I have shown the importance of familial networks for refugee youth throughout the transition to adulthood (Macaulay, 2020). While previous research has demonstrated that refugee youth may settle fast (Deng, 2016), the absence of family can influence how these young people build their overall identity and their wellbeing as young adults. Calls have been made to better address the wellbeing of unaccompanied refugees at Finnish (de Arruda Camara et al., 2018), Nordic (Rehn-Mendoza, 2020) and broader European (Vervliet et al., 2014) levels, all repeating similar concerns: The starting point of much youth policy is that young people can rely on their families far into adulthood (Malm, 2018). Furthermore, previous research has shown that supports designed to support refugee youth throughout the transition to adulthood can be culturally incongruous with the young peoples’ own cultural understandings of adulthood (Macaulay, 2020).

The present paper offers findings addressing participants’ conceptualisations of the transition to adulthood and how (or how not) these conceptualisations align with cultural norms that underpin youth policy and practice in Finland. Findings show that youth participants found the rigidity of the concepts of ‘minor’ and ‘adult’, and the rights and privileges these afford, to not necessarily be a reflection of how they see themselves. As participants indicated, arbitrary distinctions of ‘legal’ adulthood based on age can create tension in their lived experiences and performance of identity. These findings will be critically discussed through the lens of the theory of bordering (Yuval-Davis et al., 2019). This theory will be used to better understand the individual, collective, social, and political intersections of everyday lived experience that influence participants’ transition to adulthood in Finland. Broadly speaking, bordering can be thought of as the concrete and abstract borders that are created and maintained within societies, which can curate – at times unevenly – the everyday lived experiences of belonging and a sense of safety. For participants in this study, these borders may be physical borders – such as those that demarcate their physicality relative to geography and concepts of home. Additionally, these borders may also be the abstract borders of everyday experience – such as the social conditions that generate marginalisation, or conversely, social conditions and agency that promote a sense of inclusion and belonging. Of interest is how young people experience these borders – including reinforcing and eradicating them throughout the transition to adulthood.

Following the outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2022 and the related migration wave, Ukrainian students now represent approximately 3% of pupils in Czech schools, constituting the largest minority group (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, 2025). While the integration of foreign students has been extensively discussed (Šeďová et al., 2024; Hlaďo et al., 2024), empirical studies quantitatively analyzing classmates' specific reactions toward newly arrived students by national citizenship remain scarce, particularly at the lower secondary level, where systematic research is insufficient.

Drawing on social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), this study conceptualizes students’ reactions toward classmates as embedded in processes of social categorization, in-group attachment, and the maintenance of group boundaries. Rather than overt hostility, contemporary research suggests that intergroup bias in school contexts often manifests in subtle forms, such as reduced willingness to help, limited social contact, or emotionally ambivalent responses toward perceived out-group members (Brewer, 1999; Pettigrew & Meertens, 1995). Schools constitute a key social arena in which children actively negotiate belonging and difference, and where national citizenship may become a salient marker shaping peer interactions. These processes are further intensified by perceived group threat and the strength of identification with the national in-group, which influence how students evaluate and respond to classmates perceived as “others” (Blumer, 1958; Stephan et al., 2015).

This study employs a vignette-based experimental design (Ausprug & Hinz, 2015; Mutz, 2011) to test the effect of a classmate's national citizenship on declared behavioral reactions among lower secondary students (grades 6-9, ages 11-15). Participants are randomly assigned to scenarios describing either a Czech or Ukrainian classmate in identical social situations (e.g., needing help with schoolwork, conflict with a schoolmate). National citizenship represents the only systematically manipulated independent variable. Data are collected via questionnaires administered to approximately 700 students from a convenience sample of ten schools across the South Moravia region in the Czech Republic, with random assignment embedded within the survey instrument. Dependent variables measure prosocial behaviors (willingness to collaborate, offer help, extend social invitations) and excluding behaviors (avoidance, social rejection, discriminatory treatment) using Likert-type scales, capturing both subtle and explicit forms of social response. Data will be analyzed using independent-samples t-tests or Mann-Whitney U tests (depending on distributional assumptions) to compare behavioral reactions between experimental conditions, with appropriate effect size measures calculated to assess practical significance.

The study advances existing research in three key ways. First, it provides experimental evidence of citizenship-based bias in actual school contexts where Ukrainian integration is ongoing, addressing a significant gap in Czech educational research. Second, it focuses on declared behavioral intentions rather than attitudes alone, thereby linking psychological dispositions with socially consequential actions in peer interactions. Third, it examines these processes during middle childhood, when interventions may be most effective in preventing the crystallization of intergroup bias. Findings are expected to provide empirically grounded insights for educators and policymakers seeking to strengthen inclusive classroom environments, specifically identifying intervention points where prosocial peer relations can be fostered and exclusionary tendencies addressed before they become entrenched patterns.