MIGRANTS: The Educational Attainment of Migrants in Comparative Perspective: The importance of instituitional factors
Overview
A Research Project
funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) |
Summary |
The educational performance of migrant children is different
in different migrant accepting countries. Research evidence increasingly indicates that the
institutional context of schooling is very important. This research draws on literature which is
looking for relationship between educational systems, migration policies and welfare provisions in
relation to migrant integration. It analyses how contextual and institutional factors impact on the
educational attainment of migrant students, net of their individual level characteristics and seeks
to establish whether variations in the educational attainment of migrant pupils. Western countries
are systematically related to across-country variations in the characteristics of their institutions,
and in particular, their education systems. Main research questions: › How and to what extent contextual (school) characteristics and characteristics of education systems and other institutional factors impact on the educational attainment of immigrant students and whether and how these characteristics mediate the relationship between migrant educational attainment and the individual level characteristics of immigrants and the characteristics of school which they attend. › Which particular characteristics schools and institutional characteristics of immigrants accepting counties reduce or increase differences in educational attainment between migrants and non-migrant pupils? Methodology: The study uses the 2006 PISA data. The analysis is conducted in two stages. The main aim of the first stage is estimation of net differences in the migrant-non-migrants attainment gap between the 20 countries included in the analyses, and hence the relevance of including effects at the macro-level. This stage is completed by means of the OLS regression analysis. On the second stage the hierarchical multi-level modelling is employed in order to capture the effects of individual contextual and institutional characteristics on the educational performance gap between the migrants and non-migrant students. Main findings: › Disadvantaged family background and poor resources account for a large amount of the attainment gap of the first generation migrants. › The largest amount of migrant attainment gap is explained by such “migrant specific variables” such as age of arrival to the host country (for the first generation) and language spoken at home. › Good characteristics of schools moderate the impact of the disadvantaged background of migrants on the attainment while poor characteristics of schools amplify their negative impact. › In schools with a higher degree of a responsibility for resources and curriculum the impact of parental education on the attainment of pupil is stronger › In school of disadvantaged characteristics, such as a shortage of qualified teachers and a high grade retain rate, parental education, occupational status and regular studies have a weaker impact on attainment, especially for the first generation migrants. › Institutional characteristics of correlate highly and cluster well with each other in a meaningful way, and allow for the building of 5 distinct dimensional of national systems in their relation to education and educational attainment of migrants. › Institutional characteristics of migrant accepting countries mediate the impact of the characteristics of schools and families of pupils on the attainment by amplifying of softening these impacts. › Attainment gap between migrant and not migrant students varies among different national systems and that the amount of migrant-non-migrant varies cross-nationally. › Net performance gap between migrant and non-migrant pupils is larger in counties where educational systems display such features as selection, tracking and vocationalism. › For the second generation migrants the attainment gap is the smallest in countries with more comprehensive education, and with a higher degree of its standardization. › For the first generation of migrants the attainment gap is smaller in countries with more standardised education system as well as in countries with more selective immigration policy. |
Project dates |
March 2009 - February 2010 (extended to May 2010) |
Researcher
Publications
Publications from this project are now available. |