“She is my friend!”: Interaction and Sociability between Haitian and Brazilian Children in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

As child migration is a growing phenomenon today, it is necessary to reflect on the insertion of migrant children in educational institutions as a way to guarantee their rights. The aim of this article is to discuss the interaction and sociability between Brazilian and Haitian children (3 to 6 years) in Early Childhood Education Centers (NEIs). The research, qualitative, made use of techniques of ethnography (notably the participating observation) for the generation of data with Haitian and Brazilian children, Haitian adults, and teachers of two NEIs of the Municipality of Balneário Camboriú (SC). The data were also generated through conversations with children and adults, and through a history book on Haitian migration, by the researcher (with the participation of children as illustrators). The observations were recorded in a field diary and photographic records of school daily life were made. The research was based on the Social Studies of Childhood, which recognize the child as a full-fledged social actor and producer of culture, and the studies of ethno-racial relations, which highlight the inequalities between children belonging to different racial ethnic groups. Unlike other researches, no discriminatory behaviour of racist content was observed among children in the investigated institutions; on the contrary, children's friendships were perceived built in the school every day of a migratory context, where Haitian children stood out for the protagonism and leadership exercised in peer interactions. Some hypotheses about the occurrence of this difference for other researches are raised inside the article.