According to a recent study by the Kohnstamm Institute, many municipalities in the Netherlands have lost the political will to fight the educational concentration of children with a migrant background. In their opinion, past policies addressing the concentration of minority students have not had a great deal of success. Previously, there had been statutory consultations on ethnic concentration between municipalities and schools, to avoid a division between majority and minority schools, but these consultations have now stalled.
School concentration generally manifests itself along ethnic and socio-economic lines. Residential segregation is one of the main causes of school concentration, followed by free school choice and features of the school system. It is seen as problematic in most countries in Western Europe as it may affect students’ cognitive and societal outcomes, however in some (South-)Eastern European countries, ethnic minorities value their acquired right to segregation as they can provide education that is language and culture specific.
Policy makers try to lower the concentration of minority students by limiting the existing free choice of parents to choose their schools, developing parent initiatives that will encourage highly educated parents to choose a predominantly minority school and increasing the attractiveness of concentrated schools in order to attract majority parents to them.
The quality of teachers in both concentrated and mixed schools is of vital importance for the performance of the students. A well-trained teacher who understands students’ background cultures, builds cross-cultural communication, delivers culturally responsive instruction and has high expectations of his/her students will contribute to the academic achievement and successful integration of all students. It is worth bearing in mind that immigrant concentration does not lower educational outcomes as such: rather, the concentration of poor-performing students from disadvantaged families lowers the educational outcomes for immigrants and non-immigrants alike. Targeted measures could therefore be put into place to give additional educational support to all students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The SIRIUS European Policy Network on the education of children and young people with a migrant background, for which MPG acts as the Communications Manager, organised a thematic workshop on the issue of segregation in The Hague on Wednesday, 9th October 2013 last. One of the main SIRIUS objectives is to improve interactions in the classroom through the development of teacher professional capacity. A recent SIRIUS document looks at the policy measures and policy plans that aim to strengthen the professional capacity of schools as regards the educational position of children with a migrant background. Peer reviews on professional capacity have also been carried out in Antwerp and Zagreb.
Immigrant consultative bodies can provide meaningful opportunities for participants to inform and improve national policies. The paper ‘Consulting immigrants to improve national policies‘ was commissioned by the European Economic and Social Committee to assess the state of national consultative bodies on integration for discussion at the 4th European Integration Forum. MPG’s Special Feature on political participation for the European Web Site on Integration also deals with the issue of consultative bodies as a way to increase the political participation of migrants.
