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Migrants in the EU: education and training issues
Maria Pia SorvilloEuropean Commission, Directorate General Education and Culture
UNECE-Eurostat Work Session on Migration Statistics Genève, 14 - 16 April 2010
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• High flow of immigrants from EU and third countries • 10% of pupils with migrant background in many Member
States • Steep and sudden growth: in IE, IT, ES, school pupils
born in another country multiplied by 3-4 since 2000• Education as a key in developing migrants’ potential to
become well-integrated and successful citizens
Background
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Ensuring • Equal opportunity of access• High level provision• Outcome independent from socio economic
background
Facilitating• More successful social and economic life for individuals• Social stability and cohesion• Economic growth
Equity in education
Commission Green Paper on migration and mobility: challenges and opportunities for EU education systems
• Aims to:– Encourage a debate on the issue – Reflect on what can be done at EU level
• Focuses on: – Individual factors of disadvantage – Systemic factors– Evidence
• A challenge for society: perpetuates exclusion and undermines social cohesion
• A challenge for education systems: – Diversity of languages, cultures and
achievement levels– School segregation– Increasing polarisation derived from "white
flight”• Diversity is a resource, but skills are needed to
use it as such
Underachievement of migrants in education
Individual factors
Low socio-economic background
Family and community expectations
Linguistic difficulties Lack of
role models
Underachievement
Systemic factors
Segregation Teachers’Training /motivation
Ability grouping/Selection Early childhood
educationVaried country
performances
Member States are invited to:
• Developing an integrated policy approach• Setting up/strengthening anti-discrimination mechanisms• Reducing differences in the quality of provision between
schools• Increase access to high quality early childhood education
and care• Improving partnerships with migrant communities and
communication with parents• Providing targeted support for migrants with special needs
• Collecting and analysing data
Council Conclusions on Education of children with migrant background (26 Nov 2009)
Council Conclusions - 2
The Commission is invited to: • Support cooperation and exchange of good
practices among the Member States• Cooperate with international organization working
on related issues
• Monitor the achievement gap between native and migrant learners
Monitoring education
Access
Process
Outcomes
ACCESS
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Performance in reading (IV grade)
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Δ ~50
Performance in reading (15 years old)
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Performance in mathematics (15 years old)
Δ ~50
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Natives Migrants
Data source: Eurostat (LFS)
Early leavers from e&t by migrant status, 2008 (rates)
Data source: Eurostat (LFS)Natives Migrant
s
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Data source: Eurostat (LFS)
Low educated young people, 2008(ratio non-natives/natives)
Chart 7 Low educated (less than upper secondary) 24-29 years old by migrant status (ratio non-natives/natives) - 20080,0 0,5 1,0 1,5 2,0 2,5 3,0 3,5 4,0
EU27BelgiumBulgaria
CzechDenmarkGermany
EstoniaIreland
GreeceSpain
FranceItaly
CyprusLatvia
LithuaniaLuxembour
HungaryMalta
NetherlandsAustriaPoland
PortugalRomaniaSloveniaSlovakiaFinland
Sw edenUK
Commission working paper: Progress towards the Lisbon objectives in education and training - Indicators and benchmarks 2009
Migrants and education:
• Special education needs and the issue of language• Key competences • Early leavers from education and training• Adult participation in adult learning
http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc1951_en.htm
Some evidence: the Progress Report 2009
• Significant educational difficulties for migrants – Access– Segregation– Achievements– Educational levels
• Performance gaps (also after controlling for SES)
• In some countries, the second generation performs worse than the first one
Main findings
What do available data lack of….
Completeness
Depth
Width Comparability
• Improve definition of policy needs• Explore existing data sources• Study technical and methodological
improvements to increase data availability and reliability
Next steps
Better monitoring of migrants’ educationIdentification of best practices
More effective policies
Thank you for your attention