Immigrant proportion and ethno-linguistic diversity in the classroom: consequences for children’s well-being, social integration, and academic competencies

Abstract

ABSTRACT The educational system is a crucial arena for the integration of the children of immigrants. We study the consequences of the presence of students with a migration background on various student outcomes, overall and distinguishing among natives, second- and first-generation children. We focus on Italy, a country that experienced a rapid increase in the presence of children of immigrants in school. First, we analyze not only students’ competencies but also their well-being and social integration. Second, we investigate the joint effects of two dimensions of migrants’ presence in the classroom: immigrant proportion and ethnolinguistic diversity. Third, we develop a design to make exposure to a level of immigrant proportion and ethnolinguistic diversity conditionally random. We use data collected by the National Institute for the Evaluation of the Italian School System on the entire population of students enrolled in the fifth grade in 2014–15. Our findings suggest that the immigrant proportion and ethno-linguistic diversity in the classroom have limited detrimental effects; their minor effects are widely independent of each other and approximately linear. The impact is tiny and appears to be concentrated exclusively on first-generation students. Implications for theoretical debate and educational policies are discussed in relation to the findings.