Children Participate!
Warsaw is dynamically becoming a space for practising ‘everyday multiculturalism’. Over 12,000 children from Ukraine and 3,000 children from Belarus attend Polish schools, and for the first time in 80 years, Polish language spoken with an accent can be heard with such intensity in public spaces. Polish, Ukrainian and Belarusian cultures actively circulate in Warsaw, but they still tend to exist in parallel rather than intersecting each other. There is not enough data which could allow us to describe and understand the styles, needs and challenges associated with participating in Warsaw’s cultural life by migrant children. As a result, we are unable to understand the role culture can play in supporting harmonious cohabitation in a multicultural city and counteracting the second generation of migrants’ syndrome.
In 2025 we decided to map out Warsaw’s cultural offerings for Ukrainian and Belarusian children and their families. We were looking at it through the eyes of children, parents, instructors, employees of cultural entities and teachers. An exploratory nature of the research gave us space to test various research techniques and methods. This was particularly important when attempting to capture the children’s point of view.
Elements of the research
Between June and December 2025, together with Badania and Działania, we conducted:
an analysis and mapping out of Warsaw’s cultural offerings available for the studied group (Polish, Belarusian and Ukrainian entities);
literature review on the situation of children and youth with migration experience and second generation issues;
two group interviews with children of Belarusian and Ukrainian origin with migration experience who currently live in Warsaw;
10 in-depth individual interviews with Belarusian and Ukrainian parents who have lived in Poland for at least one year but not longer than since 2020;
14 in-depth individual interviews with representatives of Belarusian, Ukrainian and Polish cultural entities targeting their offerings at Belarusian and/or Ukrainian children living in Warsaw;
one group interview with instructors working with non-Polish children in Warsaw’s cultural centres;
two group interviews with teachers from public primary schools, where Ukrainian and Belarusian children account for a significant percentage of pupils;
In November we invited the children to take part in a photographic and diary project, where they can individually reflect on how they spend their free time. In the next phase of the research, we will conduct individual interviews with the children, based on the materials produced by them. This activity will be crowned by a photo exhibition of those taking part in the research.
The results of the first stage of the research were presented at WOK Lab on 5 December. The insights became a starting point for a roundtable discussion which hosted various specialists with various perspectives. Among them were representatives of diasporic and Polish cultural entities, education and migration experts, representatives from the City of Warsaw’s Culture Bureau and the Education Bureau. We had the pleasure to observe how our insights describing Warsaw’s multicultural world and the experience of Belarusian and Ukrainian children and families resonated with the experiences of the events’ participants. The reflection gathered during the discussion will be used to design the next stage of the research in 2026.
