Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on February 24 last year, thousands of Ukrainian refugees have enrolled in the French school system. As they adapt to their new daily routine, their teachers look back at how the integration process went.
On her first day of school, Yulia cried rivers. It was the March 28, 2022, a little over a month since her home country Ukraine was invaded by Russia. Squeezing her mother’s hand tightly, it took Yulia’s teacher Marie-Laure* several attempts to peel her away and bring her through the doors of her new primary school thousands of kilometres from home, in an eastern Parisian suburb.
