The effect of immigration on the school performance of natives: Cross country evidence using PISA test scores

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. www.econstor.eu The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E SIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. We study whether a higher share of immigrant pupils affects the school performance of natives using aggregate multi-country data from PISA. We find evidence of a negative and statistically significant relationship. The size of the estimated effect is small: doubling the share of immigrant pupils in secondary schools from its current sample average of 4.8 percent to close to 10 percent would reduce the test score of natives by 1.32 to 1.96 percent, depending on the selected group of natives. There is also evidence that -conditional on the average share of immigrant pupils -reducing the dispersion of this share between schools has small positive effects on the test scores of natives.JEL Classification: J15, I28

Immigrants in the classroom and effects on native children

“…Another study also uses PISA data and provides cross-country evidence for 19 countries [9]. One obvious challenge in using cross-country evidence is that more developed countries have more efficient school systems and attract more immigrants due to better economic opportunities.…”

Immigrant concentration in schools: Consequences for native and migrant students

“…Both authors find that native students are more likely to opt out from local public schools, the higher the share of immigrants in school. 1 The impact of immigrant concentration on the academic achievement of native pupils is studied by Gould et al (2009), Brunello and Rocco (2011) and Geay et al (2012. The results of these studies are mixed.…”

Immigration and the school system

“…As documented by many papers Jensen andRasmussen (2011), Brunello andRocco (2013), Gould et al (2009, e.g. ), immigration appears to hit native pupils.…”

“…First, a negative selection of immigrant parents reduces the school effort of native students; this hits particularly the native students with relatively low parental motivation. This provides a potential explanation for the negative effect of immigrants on native outcomes being larger for native students from a more disadvantaged socioeconomic background (Gould et al 2009;Betts 1998;Brunello and Rocco 2011). Second, school quality matters.…”