“That school was home”: Student mobility and welcoming from the children’s experience

“Acollida” [welcome, reception] in Catalan schools has been traditionally linked with international migrations. However, recent sociodemographic changes have brought about new patterns of residential and school mobility, which affect both national and for­eign-origin children. This article explores ethnographically the students’ “welcome” in Primary Education schools in Catalonia drawing on the phenomenon of school mo­bility. It focuses on the lived experiences of recently incorporated students, document­ed through a comparative school ethnog­raphy in two state schools in the Barce­lona metropolitan region. First, the ways these children perceive school measures of­ficially designed to welcome them are ex­plored. Secondly, the relationships and in­teractions unfolded with their arrival in the schools – interpreted as welcome informal practices – are analysed. All this shows the importance of relational networks in the peer group and contribute to the study of child sociability in moments of transition.