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The formation of the sense of belonging is a lifelong process, which has no precise patterns and depends on individual experiences and feelings. For migrant children, it becomes central during transnational transitions and socialisation. To study the anchors and thresholds that shape a transnational sense of belonging of migrant children in Poland, this paper adopts the concept of social anchoring proposed by Grzymała-Kazłowska [2016. "Social Anchoring: Immigrant Identity, Security and Integration Reconnected?." Sociology 50 (6): 1123–1139]. The study derives from child-centred qualitative research with migrant children, their parents and their teachers. The analysis introduces the four dimensions of belonging formation, namely the formal, social, emotional and symbolic, which determine how migrant schoolchildren negotiate their sense of belonging during transnational transitions. This research stresses the significance of all four dimensions for children's socialisation and underlines that belonging becomes key in children's wellbeing and sets the priorities in multiple spheres, like education, friendship, interests, leisure, or future life plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Polish government decided to shut down all public and private institutions, including schools, from 12 March 2020. Since then, 4.58 million students from 24,000 schools have remained in their homes and practiced distance learning. Distance learning has greatly affected children's social practices, including domestic, everyday, specialist, and cultural practices. This paper applies social practice theory, rooted in Schatzki's ontological theory of practices, and Shove, Pantzar, and Watson's structure of social practices to study the changes to migrant primary school children's social practices during distance learning in Poland. The data are derived from a subsample of a larger qualitative study of the transnational transition processes of migrant children in Poland. This paper investigates how the COVID-19 lockdown and distance learning have prompted migrant primary school children to reflect on the transformation of traditional social practices and the value of school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]