This article examines the increasing role of emotional and social skills in today’s work and institutional life by studying how emotion management among teachers and preschool teachers is related to the personal, social and professional rules of engaging with newly-arrived children in Denmark. Using empirical data based on observations and interviews with teachers and preschool
teachers in schools of only newly-arrived students and mixed school classes, the analytical attention is on the common features of emotion management, and how these features are related to the practice of ‘othering’ through interactions with newly-arrived children. The investigation is informed by a micro-sociological approach, and theoretically grounded in the Bolton and Boyd’s moving on from Hochschild’s concept of emotional labour to the notion of situated emotion work. The finding shows that newly-arrived children is categorised differently depending on the school’s approach to both the distribution of students, the rules of engagement and interaction forms. By understanding emotion management in this specific sociocultural and learning context, this article opens up for a more general understanding of interpersonal and emotional aspects of education.