In our classrooms, we are seeing students from different countries with different views and practices. To help our students to integrate with one another, I believe values inculcation is important. MTL and CCE play an important role in inculcating the right values in students to live harmoniously with one another in spite of diversity like ethnic beliefs and nationality.

It is also worth mentioning social anchors will change over time and as such we can consider how to ensure these anchors are not simply perfunctory but also remain as links to issues of identity, security and integration. 

1)  Integration efforts should be done early. Should they feel unwelcomed and discriminated in the early years/ months on arrival, immigrants may not want to assimilate themselves into our society.

2) Intentional anchors are necessary although, at first, it may look artificial. Hence programmes like the school’s english programme for international students are important. The rest of the SDEs can then be planned to further support integration efforts.

It also got me thinking that while this sharing focused on sharing about migrants, ultimately it stems from the idea of the “other”, which could not only arise due to being from different nationalities, but also potentially from different races, SES, academic streams, etc. So to put things into our school context, social anchors for migrants seem to be a form of peer support and could also apply as bridges to connect not just students of different nationalities, but to build more social connections among our students of different backgrounds in general.