The Interplay Between Families and Schools: Immigrant and Native Differentials in Educational Outcomes

We examine the effects of school context on educational outlooks and outcomes of the children of immigrants, in comparison with natives in Spain, an under-represented case in the international literature and a fast growing immigration destination in Europe. Using two sources of hierarchical data, 2011 Chances Survey and the 2010 Secondary Schooling National Evaluation Survey, which cluster students across schools, we investigate the factors that contribute to the formation of long term educational careers. To start with we analyze performance from both an objective (test scores in mathematics) and subjective perspective (estimation by children and also their parents of whether individual school results will allow them to proceed to tertiary education). Then we turn our attention to the adjusted educational expectations (controlled for prior performance) of children. Our results reveal the different way that school context works for immigrant and native origin children. Our multilevel regression analysis finds significantly worse school results among immigrants (test scores). Although immigrant children themselves understand the constraints that such disadvantage imposes on their future educational careers, immigrant parents seem to hold on to a rather unrealistic position. This parental optimism in turn seems to boost the career expectation of immigrant children independent of school effects. Thus while school context determines the performance of immigrant origin students to a greater extent than those of natives, the opposite is true for expectations. The formation of aspirations is more family-oriented among immigrants, and thus more positive, than among natives

Adolescents' life plans in the city of Madrid. Are immigrant origins of any importance?

Identities formed during adolescence are known to be crucial in shaping future life decisions in multiple domains, including not only the educational and work careers but also partnership arrangements, fertility trajectories, residential choices, even civic and political attitudes. In this article we examine in a very simple and mostly descriptive way the main differences and similarities between the daily life of adolescents of immigrant and non-immigrant origin, and their wishes and expectations for their future, utilizing data from the Chances Survey, collected in 30 secondary schools in the city of Madrid in 2011. Our methods combine a comparison of means, the ANOVA test, multivariate regressions and factor analysis, in order to identify when adolescents of immigrant origin reveal wishes and expectations significantly different from those of their classmates of native origin; and the extent to which they expect higher frustration of their wishes in their future life, or not. Differences by gender are also explored. Our findings suggest similarities and differences between both groups depending on the particular aspect examined, and discard a systematic pattern of greater optimism or pessimism among immigrant adolescents compared to their non-immigrant classmates. Differences by origin tend to be larger when respondents are asked about the immediate future instead of the more distant one, and immigrant girls seem to be the most pessimistic about their future.

The Migration of Elites in a Borderless World: Citizenship as an Incentive for Professionals and Managers?

Der Artikel geht der Frage nach, inwiefern die geöffneten Türen für die Immigration Hochqualifizierter in den OECD-Ländern tatsächlich zu einer verstärkten Migrationsbewegung führen. Die Analyse von Daten zu Eliten- und Hochqualifiziertenmigration in Ostasien, Europa und den USA führt zu dem Ergebnis, dass diese dem Muster einer „brain circulation“ folgt und die Staatsbürgerrechte dabei keine entscheidende Rolle spielen

Developing Capacities for Inclusive Citizenship in Multicultural Societies: The Role of Deliberative Theory and Citizenship Education

Political frameworks such as assimilation, accommodation and multiculturalism that have sought to address difference have failed to achieve political equality and inclusion for immigrants, driven primarily by the flawed understanding of culture and identity in multicultural states. Offering a brief critique of these models, this essay advocates the use of deliberative theory in citizenship education as instrumental to building capacities for inclusive citizenship and cultivating belonging and inclusion in diverse societies. Deliberative practice enables the reconceptualization of citizenship as performative, involving responsibilities for dialogic engagement. Such capacities and responsibilities are indispensable for a just political order in multicultural societies. © 2012 The Author(s).published_or_final_versio

The government of migrant mobs: Temporary divisible multiplicities in border zones

This article engages with the production and government of migrant multiplicities in border zones of Europe, arguing that the specificity of migrant multiplicities consists in their temporary and divisible character. It is argued that there are three different forms of migrant multiplicities: (1) the multiplicity produced due to migrants’ spatial proximity; (2) the virtual multiplicity generated through data; and (3) the visualized and narrated multiplicity that emerges from media portraits of the ‘spectacle’ of the arrivals of migrants. It is claimed that multiplicities are made to divide and partition the migrants and thus prevent the formation of a collective political subject. In the concluding section, the article deals with the ambivalent character of the term ‘the mob’, addressing the twofold dimension of migrant multiplicities: these are in fact generated by techniques of power, at the same time exceeding them and representing potential emerging political subjects