Migration Background and Educational Tracking: Is there a Double Disadvantage for Second-Generation Immigrants?
CESifo, Munich, 2010
CESifo Working Paper No. 3256
![](https://cesifo.org/DocImg/cesifo1_wp3256.jpg?c=1689237132)
Research on immigrants’ educational disadvantages largely focuses on differences in student achievement tests. Exploiting data from the German PIRLS extension, we find that second-generation immigrants face additional disadvantages with respect to grades and teacher recommendations for secondary school tracks that cannot be explained by differences in student achievement tests and general intelligence. Second-generation immigrations are disproportionately affected by prevailing social inequalities at the transition to secondary school tracks due to their generally less favorable socio-economic background. We additionally provide new evidence suggesting that these inequalities might be related to the failing economic assimilation of immigrants.