THE IMPACT OF MIGRATION ON ADOLESCENTS AND THEIR BULLYING EXPERIENCE IN THE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

Introduction: Immigrant and minority youth are at risk of experiencing victimization or exclusion due to their ethnic, cultural, or religious background. An increasing non-Greek population in Greek schools has led to a dramatic increase in school bullying and other forms of violence based on racial or ethnic origin.Aim: This study attempts to examine the scale and the impact of school bullying and specifically whether adolescents victimize their peers due to their ethnic background.Material-Methods: The literature was searched in the Google Scholar, Scopus and PubMed databases with the terms (ethnic victimization), (immigrant), (students) (bullying), (bullied peer), (adolescents), (ethnic minority) and (bullying cases). The search involved randomized clinical trials for a period of not more than five years and included a total of 19 studies.Results: Ethnic or cultural origin play a major role in increasing the risk of victimization of a young migrant. Regarding the forms of bullying experienced by adolescents of different ethno cultural origins, it is found that the dominant form is verbal, followed by physical, relational and other indirect forms. At the same time, it was observed that low levels of positive attitude towards migrants are the basis for further incidents of ethnic-based intimidation. Finally, the type of involvement of the teenager in bullying incidents is not significantly influenced by the ethnocultural origin of the adolescent.Conclusions: Ethnic minority adolescents were considerably more at risk of becoming racially victimized in comparison with their peers.