IMMERSE Information Sheet for Parents/Guardians

IMMERSE is an international project funded by the European Commission. IMMERSE stands for “Integration Mapping of Migrant and Refugee Children in Schools and Other Experiential Environments in Europe.”

Purpose of the Study: IMMERSE is looking at the integration of refugee and migrant children in schools in Europe. We are collecting data in six countries: Spain, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Germany, and Belgium.

What will the study involve?  The study involves collecting data from children aged 7-18 years, refugee, migrant and non-migrant, on a number of questions about themselves, their family, school, and friends. We invite your child’s participation in a survey. Each person will fill out the survey by themselves, and it will take approximately 20-30 minutes.

There is also a short survey for you as the child’s parent or legal guardian to fill out, which will take approximately 10-15 minutes. This will be sent home with your child.

Why has your child been asked to take part? Your child has been asked to take part in the research because she/he attends an educational centre that was invited and has agreed to participate in IMMERSE.

Do I or my child have to take part? No, participation is voluntary. You will be asked to sign a consent form for yourself and on behalf of your child. Your child will also be asked to sign an assent form. You have the option of withdrawing from the study, even if you have agreed to participate, and you do not need to give any reasons for doing so. Once you and your child have completed the questionnaires, you can still withdraw your answers up until eight years after the completion of the project (anticipated project completion date is May 2023).

Will you and your child’s participation in the study be kept confidential? Yes, absolutely! We are collecting data for research purposes only, so we gather only a minimum of personal data (name and email address or telephone number) to record consent, and it will be stored securely and separately from your questionnaire responses. Your personal data will be processed and handled in accordance with European legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679. Access to personal data will be highly restricted (IMMERSE researchers only), and no attempt will be made to link personal data to questionnaire responses. Eight years after the completion of the project, your personal data will be erased. Your and your child’s answers to the questions on the survey will be tagged with an anonymous identifier made up of numbers.

What will happen to the information you and your child give? The responses from your and your child’s surveys will become part of a securely stored database, along with survey responses from other children, parents, principals, teachers, and other educators from across Ireland and Europe. Because the answers that you and your child give will be anonymised, there will be no way to tell who provided the information. The IMMERSE team will use this data for research only, to help make recommendations to schools, communities, and governments about integration in schools.

What will happen to the results? It is expected that results of this study will be published in a project report, academic and policy-oriented articles, as well as on the project website. After the project has finished, the anonymised data may be made available to other researchers, but only once we have ensured that it is not possible to identify any individual person from it.

What are the possible disadvantages of taking part? We don’t envisage any negative consequences for you or your child in taking part.

What if there is a problem? At the end of the survey, we will discuss with the children how they found the experience and how they are feeling. If they feel distressed, we will talk to their teacher. If you have any issues, you should contact the University College Cork research team (details below). We can provide contact information for support services.

Who has reviewed this study? Approval has been given by the UCC Social Research Ethics Committee, and all members of the research team visiting schools have been garda vetted.

Any further queries?  If you need any further information, you can contact the UCC IMMERSE Team (email: immerse@ucc.ie).

**For the purposes of this study, children are considered to have a migrant background if they were born outside the country or if they have at least one parent who was born outside the country.