2026/01/01 by Richard Nennstiel · 1 voice
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Cultural Differences and Values #Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies #Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-25346-0_8
openalex publication_date 2026/01/01 · openalex created_date 2026/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/25
The large-scale migration to Europe since 2014, including significant forced migration, has presented new challenges for educational integration. While research has consistently documented ethnic penalties in education, comparative, large-scale studies on the performance of newly arrived students (post-2014) remain scarce. This chapter addresses this lacuna by leveraging data from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2022. Using an analytical sample of 129,727 students from 16 European host countries, we conduct a comparative analysis of the mathematical proficiency gaps between native students and newly arrived immigrant students (those arriving in or after 2014). The findings reveal profound cross-national heterogeneity in unadjusted performance gaps. In several countries, such as Germany and Finland, newly arrived students exhibit pronounced achievement gaps approaching a full standard deviation. In contrast, in nations like the United Kingdom and Ireland, these gaps are statistically and substantively negligible. A stepwise regression analysis demonstrates that a substantial portion of this cross-national variance is attributable to compositional differences, primarily in socio-economic status and home language. However, even after controlling for these individual-level factors, significant net gaps persist. A final macro-level analysis indicates that these adjusted gaps are systematically larger in countries with more highly stratified educational systems, suggesting that institutional tracking compounds disparities for newly arrived students. The results underscore a dual challenge for European societies: while gaps are heavily shaped by pre-migration compositional factors, their magnitude is also moderated by host-country institutional structures.