Report shows many migrant children failing in education

Many developed countries are failing to help children of immigrant families integrate into society through education, according to a new study produced by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Immigrant children in some OECD countries lag more than two years behind their native counterparts in school performance.


Where Immigrant Students Succeed was published last week and draws on the evidence of the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), which tested 15-year-old students in 41 countries in mathematics, reading comprehension, science and problem-solving skills.


It focused on 17 territories with large immigrant populations: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the US, and three non-OECD Pisa participants, the Russian Federation, Hong Kong and Macao.


The report spotlights the challenge facing education systems in helping immigrant populations integrate into their host societies. It calls on European countries, in particular, to respond more effectively to socio-economic and cultural diversity in their student populations.


"This means finding ways to ensure that immigrant children enter the labour market with strong basic skills and the capacity and motivation to continue learning throughout their lives," the OECD commented on its website.


"Doing nothing isn't an option, the data suggest: with unemployment rates in many countries two to three times higher among immigrants than among nationals, the cost of inaction may be far greater than the cost of action."


The report shows that more than a third of second-generation immigrant children in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Norway and the US, who have spent their entire schooling in the host country, perform below the baseline Pisa benchmark for mathematics performance at which students begin to demonstrate the kind of skills that enable them to actively use mathematics. In all other OECD countries except Australia and Canada, at least 20% of second-generation immigrant children fall below this level.


However, the study also reveals that immigrant children "express equal, if not more, motivation to learn mathematics than their native counterparts and very positive general attitudes towards school, suggesting that they bring with them a strong potential on which schools can build more effectively," according to the OECD website.


The report makes clear that school systems differ widely in terms of their outcomes for immigrant children. In some countries, notably Canada and Australia, immigrant children perform as well as their native counterparts. But in other countries, especially those with highly tracked education systems, they do substantially less well.


"In many countries, the odds are weighted against students from immigrant families right from the start," the OECD commented. It highlights the fact these children tend to be placed in schools with lower performance expectations, often characterised by disadvantaged student intakes.


In all but four countries studied, at least 25% of second-generation immigrant children attend schools where immigrants make up more than 50% of rolls.