Onwards and upwards? The educational and occupational expectations of Irish teens of migrant descent

Abstract

While students of immigrant origin often face difficulties during their school career, their educational aspirations and expectations have been found to be relatively high. Less is known, however, about the aspirations and expectations of students of migrant descent in more recent countries of immigration. Furthermore, occupational expectations have received less attention in the literature. Drawing on data from a nationally representative longitudinal study of Irish children, this paper provides the first investigation of the Irish case by comparing the educational and occupational expectations of Irish teens across five ethnic groups. Additionally, it explores how these expectations might translate into entry into third-level education by linking them to subject level choice in secondary school. The results suggest that expectations and subject level choice may be surprisingly similar across the groups, with no evidence of any substantial differences being found.