Academic and Vocational Tracking in Upper Secondary Education

This chapter focuses on students who continue in full-time education after compulsory schooling and asks whether minority students are disproportionately channelled into lower-status vocational tracks and are excluded from the high-status academic tracks which lead to higher education. The picture that emerges is of distinct patterns in different sets of countries. In Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, minority groups are less likely to follow the academic track, but this under-representation can be entirely explained by their disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds and relatively low grades in lower secondary school. However, in a second group of countries – England and Wales, Finland, France and Sweden –most minorities are in fact more likely to follow the academic track than their majority-group peers from similar socioeconomic backgrounds and with similar grades. The indications are that comprehensive systems offer greater opportunities for minority students to fulfil their ambitions than do tracked educational systems.

Ethnic Differences in Early School-leaving

In this chapter we study the differences between ethnic groups in early school-leaving in six of the countries: England and Wales, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the USA. We find sizeable gross differences in early school-leaving between the majority group and some, but far from all, ethnic minority groups, mainly to the disadvantage of minorities. Most differences disappear when we compare those with similar social origins, however, and once we also control for educational performance (grades, or test results) a substantially important disadvantage remains for only one minority group out of the 42 we study. In particular, except for those from the Middle East, Asian minority groups have very high continuation rates into upper secondary education. There is little evidence to suggest that there is any intrinsic or cultural ethnic disadvantage that discourages minority students from staying on in school, or that discrimination or unfair treatment pushes them out.

Gender and Ethnic Inequalities across the Educational Career

This chapter examines whether the second generation has assimilated to Western patterns of female advantage in education. In contrast to most industrialised societies, which have witnessed a change towards female advantage in education in recent decades, gender gaps in education in ethnic minorities’ origin countries vary greatly, with persistent female disadvantage in world regions where many of the minorities under study originate. Interactions between female gender and ethnic background are examined for the five educational outcomes analysed in the previous chapters, thus covering the entire educational career. The results show that gender gaps among the second generation are on the whole as large and in the same direction as among the majority population. Thus the female disadvantage found in the parental generation disappears in the children's generation and is replaced by the same pattern of female advantage that is found among majority groups in Western countries.

Ethnic Penalties and Premia at the End of Lower Secondary Education

This chapter investigates the grades and test scores of second-generation minorities at the end of compulsory schooling (around age fifteen). We document the differences in overall achievement both between minorities and between countries, showing that Chinese and some other Asian groups out-perform the majority group while Turkish, North African, Caribbean, Sub-Saharan African groups and many European minorities all perform less well. Whilst the disadvantage of many European minorities can largely be explained by their disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, socioeconomic background does not explain the disadvantages experienced by minorities with Turkish and North African backgrounds, meaning that these groups experience significant ‘ethnic penalties’ even after controlling for their parent's socioeconomic circumstances. Conversely, the Chinese experience substantial ‘ethnic premia’. We then investigate explanations for these ethnic premia and penalties, concluding by considering the extent to which different countries offer more or less favourable environments for the educational success of the children of immigrants.

Ethnic Minorities in Ten Western Countries

This chapter provides background information about the ten Western countries under study, starting with a description of the size of the second-generation groups in the ten countries and the major migration flows to these destinations. We also present indicators of the extent to which their parents (the primary migrants) were positively or negatively selected since selectivity is a major influence on second-generation educational outcomes. We then describe the selected countries’ educational systems to provide the background against which the different educational outcomes are analysed in the subsequent chapters. Finally, to capture differences in the integration climates which immigrants encounter, we describe how the ten Western countries under study differ in their scores with respect to multicultural policies. The aim of this overview is to provide readers with the necessary information to evaluate the findings given in the empirical chapters, and compare both the different minority groups and the destination countries.

Ethnic Differences in Completion of Upper Secondary Education

In this chapter we explore the completion of upper secondary education. The central question here is whether the high rates of ethnic minority continuation into upper secondary education lead to a closing of the attainment gaps with the majority group. The story which emerges is that there are considerable continuities over the secondary school career. Ethnic disadvantages have not cumulated, but neither have they been eliminated. Nevertheless, the picture at the end of upper secondary education is not simply a repeat of the picture at the end of lower secondary. Overall, we find that in Canada, France and the USA the ethnic penalties found in test scores at the end of lower secondary have been mitigated by the end of upper secondary, while in Sweden the movements are more likely to be in the opposite direction.

The Comparative Study of Ethnic Inequalities in Educational Careers

This chapter provides an introduction to the volume. It describes the scope of the work, namely the comparative analysis of ethnic educational inequalities in ten Western countries at different stages of the educational career, and provides the intellectual rationale. In particular, the authors ask whether ethnic inequalities can be explained by the differences in the socioeconomic circumstances of the different ethnic communities, or whether minorities experience additional ethnic penalties (or premia) over and above their socioeconomic disadvantages (or, more rarely, socioeconomic advantages). They also ask whether some countries provide more favourable contexts for the integration of the second generation than do others, and if so what are the key features of the most favourable contexts? The authors conclude by summarising the main findings of the study.

Origin and Destination Effects on the Educational Careers of Second-generation Minorities

We examine whether context matters for the integration of second-generation children of migrants into Western educational systems. Using data on ten destination countries and on five distinct educational outcomes at various stages of the educational career, we study educational inequalities between the second-generation immigrants and their majority peers. We find that institutional and migration variables affect the magnitude of ethnic educational disadvantage, even when social background is accounted for. Ethnic inequality is greater in countries like Belgium and Germany with more strongly tracked educational systems, and in countries with limited multicultural policies. In contrast, ethnic inequality is lower if the first-generation migrants are selected based on their skills, compared with the non-migrant population in origin countries. Our interpretation is that more positively selected migrants are more ambitious for their children to succeed within Western educational systems, and their children are more likely to take advantage of the opportunities offered them.

University Completion among the Children of Immigrants

This chapter examines the success of the second generation in completing tertiary education in Belgium, Canada, England and Wales, France, the Netherlands and the USA (the only countries for which appropriate data were available). The ethnic inequalities found in higher education largely reflect patterns seen earlier in the educational career but there is at the same time clear evidence of progress relative to majority populations. Thus, if we compare the second-generation groups and countries which are covered in both Chapter 3 and Chapter 7, we find that there are thirteen significant ethnic penalties (that is, negative estimates after controls for socioeconomic background) in Chapter 3 (out of a total of twenty-seven that we estimated), but only three in Chapter 7. This is an important and novel finding, suggesting that higher education may give valuable ‘second chances’ to disadvantaged ethnic minorities. This pattern applies in all six countries.