Ukrainian refugee children in Czech early childhood settings: why some families are more successful than others when integrating into a new environment

Abstract

This study applies the Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) framework to examine the experience of Ukrainian refugee families with young children adapting to early childhood education and care in the Czech Republic after 2022. Based on 15 semi-structured interviews with Ukrainian mothers, it highlights the types of community cultural wealth used to navigate Czech society, access early childhood education and adapt to Czech ECEC settings. The results show that social and familial capitals played a positive role upon arrival. Many families also demonstrated considerable resistant and navigational capital, reacting quickly and flexibly to participate in Czech society. Although the use of these capitals was restricted during the uncertain integration phase, they were fully utilised when overcoming challenges, especially with complex admission processes for limited ECEC places. Utilisation of the family's linguistic capital was key to integrating children, but resistant capital was most useful in compensating for socio-cultural and linguistic barriers.