Wellbeing, belonging and school coexistence of students of migrant origin in spanish schools: Ethical welcoming, emotional health and a community of care

Abstract

The inclusion of students of migrant origin is not decided solely at admission or in material access to a school place: it is played out, above all, in the daily life of the school—whether the newly arrived student finds legible and trustworthy adults, bonds, high expectations and the experience that the school is also theirs. This paper develops the sections on (i) emotional wellbeing, mental health and migratory trauma, and (ii) belonging, school coexistence and everyday discrimination, arguing that both form a single field: belonging is the social form of wellbeing, and just coexistence is the institutional condition of belonging. The analysis draws on the applicable legal framework—the 1978 Constitution (art. 27), LOE-LOMLOE, the LOPIVI and Law 15/2022—and on Eurydice’s comprehensive (whole-child / whole-school) approach, incorporating recent evidence on adolescent mental health and hate crime. The philosophical backbone is the Conscious Pedagogical Model (CPM/MPC), formulated by Julio César Arboleda (2026), which frames the educating function as unconditional welcoming of the learner in their singularity and vulnerability: the migrant student is not a deficient subject but a ‘lived phenomenon of vulnerability’ whom the school must receive with ethical otherness. Actionable strategies are proposed at classroom, school and system levels, concluding with an indicator set and an applied research agenda so that belonging becomes school culture rather than rhetoric.