Explaining the gap in educational achievement between second-generation immigrants and natives: the Italian case

Abstract

This article studies the determinants of the achievement gap between second-generation immigrants and natives in Italy, investigating the role played by economic resources, cultural-capital background, pupils' aspirations and ethnic school-segregation dynamics – the main factors emphasized in the literature. In addition, we verify to what extent second-generation status exerts an independent effect on early school performance, net of the abovementioned determinants. The Italian case is compared with those of France and Germany. As to the main results, we find that, in Italy, second-generation status per se is also a determinant; ethnic school-segregation dynamics and pupils' socio-economic background represent the most critical barriers. Similarly in Germany, the traditional determinants are not the only constraints faced by second-generation immigrants in achieving at least the same educational performance level as their native peers, suggesting that further analysis is needed. By contrast, in France, second-generation status has no residual effect on educational performance.

Keywords:

• Educational achievement
• second-generation immigrants
• Italy
• international comparison

Notes

According to this theory, stratification turns out instead to be an advantage when educational achievement is measured by continuation rates. Since immigrants are positively selected for their ambitions and aspirations, their children are more likely to show higher expectations than their native counterparts in continuing school once the compulsory period is ended.

Because of data limitations, it was not possible to investigate further the effect of the country of origin, which has been continuously found as a main driver in determining the scholastic trajectories of the integration of immigrants' children (see among others: Glick and Hohmann-Marriot 2007; Portes and Rumbaut 2001). In France, in fact, owing to legislative constraints, the PISA staff could not ask for it.

Sociologists identify the ‘primary socialization’ as the socialization children experience in the first years of their life, during which the family context assumes a fundamental role. In addition, in the ‘secondary socialization’, other social agents assume relevance that often impose different values from those elaborated during the primary socialization. In particular, in the secondary socialization, school has the predominant role in driving children's choices and attitudes.