Immigrant children in Italy between school and city policies

by Eduardo Barberis, Silvia Demozzi and Federica Taddia, Italy

Introduction

Disadvantages in education and transition from edu- cation to work are often associated with ethnicity and migration. We have a large and growing body of literature on this and, even if we see exceptions for such a statement (e.g., the school performance of Asian mino- rities in the U.S.), this trend seems confirmed in many countries. This sets out a cummulative effect affecting the following trajectories in education, society and in the labour market. Migrant pupils are disadvantaged in terms of enrollment by type of school, duration of education, achievement, drop-out, and thus in life and labour chances. The degree of such disadvantage is dependant on the national education systems (e.g., selective vs. comprehensive ones) and on the contexts their embedded in, framing how difference is treated: usually, the educational attainment of pupils with mi- gration background (CMB) is comparatively higher in countries with lower levels of economic inequality, high investments in childcare and a well-developed system of preschool education (Parreira do Amaral et al. 2011).

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by Laetitia Mellottée, France

In GOETE local case studies (Work Package 6) student essays and video material were collected as part of the attempt to generate dense, qualitative material in order to 1) allow a closer look into the dynamics of the gover- nance of educational trajectories, 2) generate a deeper understanding of the local space of the schools and their cooperation with the other local institutions; 3) analyze the climate in the school environment through the experiences of the current students, students who have recently graduated, their parents, teachers and experts.

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by Simon Jahnich, France

INTRODUCTION

In 2007 Nicolas Sarkozy right after being elected President announced that school zoning regulations would be first relaxed and then dropped altogether. This action was presented as a measure to foster the free choice of families and to create new opportunities for families from lower economic backgrounds, living in decayed urban areas. Surprisingly, this measure was also part of the programme of the socialist candidate. In the following lines, the text first discuss how this consensus raises issues about the context that made the end of school zoning so tempting for both the right- wing party and the left-wing party (I). Second, it also raises questions as to the aims of such a decision (II). Finally, the text discusses a number of aissues concerned with the consequences of this decision for the French school system (III).

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The OECD has published a report on how education systems across OECD countries fare in terms of supporting disadvantaged students. The report focuses on the link between quality of schools and the degree of equity reached between students from different socio-economic backgrounds.

The report including an executive summary is available from the OECD's Online Library.