Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > The effect of migration on the school performan...
View graph of relations

The effect of migration on the school performance of natives: cross country evidence using PISA test scores

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>02/2013
<mark>Journal</mark>Economics of Education Review
Volume32
Number of pages13
Pages (from-to)234-246
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

We use aggregate PISA data for 19 countries over the period 2000–2009 to study whether a higher share of immigrant pupils affects the school performance of natives. 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 4.2–8.4 percent would reduce the test score of natives by 1–3.4 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. Whether these findings can be generalized to a larger sample of countries is an open question that we leave to future research.