PISA DATA ON STUDENTS WITH AN IMMIGRANT BACKGROUND Mario Piacentini (mario.piacentini@oecd.org)
Definitions of students with an immigrant backgroun Students with an immigrant background are students whose mother and father were both born in a country/economy other than that where the student sat the PISA test. Among students with an immigrant background, a distinction is made between those born in the country/economy of assessment and those born abroad: First-generation immigrant students are foreign-born students whose parents are also both foreign-born. Second-generation immigrant students are students born in the country/economy where they sat the PISA test and whose parents are both foreign-born.
Percentage of first-generation immigrant students % Source: PISA 2015 and PISA 2006 Database
Source: PISA 2015 Database Student performance in science, by immigrant background
Information on country of origin Only a limited number of countries collect information on the country of origin For the majority of countries, we only know if the student is born in the country of the test, or in another country Or the information is available at high levels of aggregation (Europe, outside Europe)
Percentage of students with an immigrant background who reported that they feel like they belong at school Students from Arabic speaking countries in: Finland Netherlands Qatar Sense of belonging 78 88 90 90% of students from Arabic-speaking countries who settled in Finland reported feeling like they belong at school, but only 73% of students from these countries who settled in Denmark reported the same Denmark 73 50 60 70 80 90 100 % Source: PISA 2012 Database
Language use at home
Macao-China Jordan Percentage of immigrant students who do not use the language of assessment as their main language at home Russian Federation Argentina Hong Kong-China Mexico Brazil Australia Liechtenstein Shanghai-China Portugal Spain United Arab Emirates Belgium Ireland New Zealand Qatar Greece Switzerland France Canada OECD average (25) United Kingdom Denmark Netherlands Luxembourg Germany Austria United States Italy Norway Singapore Israel Sweden Slovenia Czech Republic Finland % 100 First-generation immigrant Second-generation immigrant 90 80 70 60 64% 50 40 30 41% 20 10 0 On average in 2012, 64% of first-generation immigrant students and 41% of second-generation immigrant students spoke most of the time a language at home that is different from the language of instruction Source: PISA 2012 Database
Performance gap in reading and primary language spoken at home OECD average Gap in reading between immigrant and non-immigrant students Gap in reading between immigrant and non-immigrant students who speak the same language (as main language) at home Source: PISA 2012 Database 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 PISA reading scores
Language use at home (TIMSS)
Language use (PISA 2018) ST023 Which language do you usually speak with the following people? (Please select one response in each row.) Mostly my <heritage language> About equally often my <heritage language> and <test language> Mostly <test language> Not applicable ST023Q01TA My mother 01 02 03 04 ST023Q02TA My father 01 02 03 04 ST023Q03TA My brother(s) and/or sister(s) 01 02 03 04 ST023Q04TA My best friend 01 02 03 04 ST023Q05TA My schoolmates 01 02 03 04
Age of arrival
The late-arrival penalty Score-point difference between immigrants and non-immigrants Luxembourg 100 50 0-50 -100-150 -200-250 0 5 10 15 Age at arrival France ex-yugoslavia Portugal Source: PISA Database
Questions in optional questionnaires
Heritage culture
Belgium Denmark Finland Hong Kong- China Italy Average Korea Portugal Serbia Slovak Republic Slovenia Immigrant students participation in host-culture celebrations. % 100 90 80 Participate in Enjoy Host-culture celebrations 77% participated in host-culture celebrations 70 60 50 40 30 20 40% enjoyed hostculture celebrations 10 0 Source: PISA 2012 Database
More questions on language learning (2012 Education Career Questionnaire) What is the first language you learned at home? How old were you when you started learning the test language? In which language do you read books, watch TV, surf the internet, write emails?
Language of instruction
Korea Germany Italy Denmark Austria Belgium Ireland Latvia Hong Kong-China OECD average (13) Serbia Luxembourg Canada Slovenia Slovak Republic Finland Portugal Singapore Percentage of immigrant students who are instructed in school subjects in their heritage language % 40 35 30 25 On average, one in ten immigrant students attends classes taught in his/her heritage language 20 15 10 5 0 Source: PISA 2012 Database
Provision of language training at school
Slovenia Serbia Germany Finland Portugal Austria Italy OECD average (12) Ireland Belgium Luxembourg Denmark Slovak Republic Canada Latvia Hong Kong- China Singapore Language training at school % 70 60 50 40 30 32% All students Between 0 and 4 years old when arrived 10 years or older when arrived 18% of students who do not regularly speak the instruction language at home received at least two hours of language training per week at school 20 10 0 9% Source: PISA 2012 Database