Joseph’s father arrived to Hungary in 2000 from Guinea, where he was at risk of persecution as a member of the opposition movement. He received refugee status in Hungary. After receiving the status, he started the family reunion procedure so that his wife and two little sons could come after him. After four years of processing the application, the family was reunited, and the mother and kids arrived to Hungary.
Joseph’s mother started to work immediately, and the kids were enrolled in kindergarten and school.
For Joseph, the school was initially scary, but because there were several other foreign children in the class and the teachers were nice, so he soon started to enjoy school. However, the initial enthusiasm slowly disappeared. The language was hard to learn, classes were difficult, and Joseph’s motivation started to fall. The adolescent boy got into more and more conflict with his peers and teachers, and the school made a report to the relevant child welfare service. They met the family once, but the family did not ask for help and the family carer did not consider it appropriate to commit the family to further cooperation. Joseph was skipping more school days until he finally dropped out from school. He did not start working and his mother found him useless, resulting in many fights. Finally he moved out from home.
Almost immediately after the arriving to Hungary, the younger son, Vincent, started to go to kindergarten, and he learned Hungarian very quickly. He was very lively, brave, and it was difficult to catch his attention and invite him in group activities. He had similar problems in primary school. It was difficult for him to pay attention to the class and to connect with his classmates. He started not doing his homework, and getting behind in learning, and at the same time getting into fights more and more with the classmates. Hes was often bullied and became more sensitive and aggressive. Soon he was labeled a “problematic” child.
Meanwhile, Joseph’s father moved out from home, Vincent stayed at home with his mother, who was the owner of an African shop and worked a lot. After school, Vincent spent the rest of the day at the shop. There were many African people in this place and there was an active social life, which he was part of. He spent a lot of time talking to adults and watching a lot of TV.
Meanwhile a volunteer begun to study and play with VIncent, and although these occasions were useful, school became more and more difficult for him. Before the summer break, he was”kicked” out of school because of his bad behavior. This year’s he will start in a new school.
