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Dronkers has focused his research on the analysis of immigrant student performance at school, comparing their performance in the home and host countries, and studying the influence on students of the macro-characteristics of these countries, with respect to politics, economics, religion, etc. The professor’s study defines immigrant students as those born in a different country to that in which they study or those with parents born in another country. The study was carried out on a sample of 9,414 immigrants from 46 different home countries. The countries analysed were: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Scotland and Sweden.

Dronkers highlights that the performance of native students is, in almost all cases, better than immigrant students’. This difference is greatest in countries such as Austria, Denmark or Germany. The exception can be seen in Australia, which is the only country where this trend is not seen.

In terms of their origin, the immigrants with the lowest levels of performance are those that come from Cape Verde, followed by Albania and Pakistan; and those with the highest levels of performance come from India, China and USA. Some of the many factors that affect immigrant student performance, according to the expert, are the educational and socioeconomic level of the parents or the fact that they attend an inclusive school. The latter leads to less satisfactory results because schools with a very heterogeneous body of students have to spend more time maintaining the equilibrium, which takes time away from purely educational issues. Faced with these results, the professor opened a new debate: “would it be socially acceptable for educational policies to contemplate specialist schools for different types of immigrant?”.

The good results of Chinese students

Dronkers stated that the results of Chinese immigrants were very positive. This is due, in part, to the importance given to education culturally as a key factor for social mobility. He also mentioned the neuropsychological advantages arising from the study of highly complex graphic symbols. They learn some 3,000 from a very early age. Chinese immigrants who continue speaking Chinese at home (including second-generation immigrants) value education and time spent reading very highly. This appreciation is even higher than in their home country. Indeed, results in mathematics and reading for those second-generation Chinese immigrants living outside Asia who continue to speak Chinese are higher than in their home country or of those who do not speak Chinese.

About Jaap Dronkers

Dronkers, International Research Professor in Educational Performance and Social Inequality at the University of Maastricht, was Associate Professor of the Sociology of Education and Empirical Sociology at the Catholic University of Brabant in Tilburg (1986-1990), and Chair in Educational Sciences (1990-1999) and Chair in Empirical Sociology (1999-2001) at the University of Amsterdam. He was Director of European Forum: The Quality of Education and its Relationships with Inequality in European and Other Modern Societies; and in 2009, he received the Professor Leune Award for his contribution to educational innovation.

Jaap Dronkers has written many works on education. Among other questions, he has written about the causes and consequences of inequalities in education, the effects of public or religious schooling, the consequences of divorce on children, and the educational and employment situation of immigrants of wide-ranging origins in different countries.

About Debates on Education

Debates on Education is an initiative from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) and Jaume Bofill Foundation to encourage social debate on the future of education. It is a forum for analysis and reflection to debate the future of teaching.