Educational Achievement of Immigrant Children in Western Countries: Origin, Destination, and Community Effects on Mathematical Performance

This paper explores the extent to which macro-level characteristics of destination countries, origin countries and immigrant communities can explain differences in the educational achievement of immigrant children. Using data from the 2003 PISA survey, we performed analyses on the mathematical performance of 7403 pupils with a background of immigration from 35 different origin countries in 13 Western countries of destination. Our cross-classified multilevel analyses show that cross-national and cross-group variance cannot be fully explained by compositional differences. Contextual properties of host countries, origin countries and communities also affect the educational performance of immigrant children. We show that the better educational performance of immigrant children in traditional immigrant receiving countries can be explained by strict immigration laws. We further find that the level of economic development of origin countries negatively affects immigrant children’s educational performance, and that children who have a background in more politically stable countries, perform better at school. Finally, we find that socioeconomic differences between immigrant communities and the native population and relative community size negatively affect immigrant children’s scholastic achievement.immigrant; educational achievement; cross-national comparison; PISA; origin country; destination country

Een evidence-based interventieprogramma gericht op preventie en reïntegratie van NEETs in Limburg

Nederland behoort tot de landen in de wereld met het laagste aantal NEETs. Limburg is de uitzondering op die regel. Bovendien stijgt het aantal NEETs tegen de landelijke trend in nog steeds in Limburg. Eerder onderzoek dat het ROA in het kader van 4Limburg deed, laat zien dat de NEETs met de grootste afstand tot de arbeidsmarkt zich in overweldigende meerderheid bevinden in de Oostelijke Mijnstreek

How Young Mothers Rely on Kin Networks and Formal Childcare to Avoid Becoming NEET in the Netherlands

Motherhood is often cited as one of the main reasons for young women to become NEET (not in employment, education, or training). Given the potential long-term negative implications of NEET status, it is important to understand which types of resources can help young mothers to avoid becoming NEET around childbirth. In this paper we investigate how the chances of young mothers to become and stay NEET around the time of first birth are related to the availability and characteristics of members of their social support network, especially partners and grandparents, to assist in childcare. In addition, we consider the local availability of formal childcare. We use population-wide register data from the Netherlands and estimate discrete-time eventhistory models. Our results show that young mothers who are cohabitating or married are less likely to become NEETs than single mothers. We also show that economic activity and relative wage of both young mothers and their partners decreases the likelihood to become NEET and to exit NEET. With respect to the grandparents, we find that having more grandparents live in the immediate vicinity is associated with a lower likelihood to become NEET and a higher likelihood to exit NEET. Furthermore, we find that young mothers with economically inactive parents are more likely to become and less likely to exit NEET. Lastly, we find evidence for crowding-out of informal and formal childcare. Formal and informal childcare sources interact in such a way that the role of either becomes less important as more of the other is available