Coping strategies among internal migrant students in Turkey

This article is based on a qualitative study that explored educational challenges and coping mechanisms of internal migrant girls whose families moved from the rural areas in the east to the western parts of Turkey. The study revealed that internal migrant girls have encountered a number of challenges that influence their educational achievement at primary schools. From the perspective of migrant girls, the emerging themes included adaptation, language, low socio-economic background, peer relations, discrimination, bullying and self-esteem. The study also confirmed that migrant girls showed resilience in the face of substantial difficulties and developed a variety of coping mechanisms in an effort to overcome their hardships. Five mechanisms were identified by the study: resort to significant others, academic orientation, forming solidarity groups, cloning identities and withdrawal. The article underlines that analysing education-related concerns and coping strategies of migrant girls is required in order to develop effective and relevant intervention programmes on behalf of students.