Are first impressions lasting? Some consequences of schooling delay for immigrants’ descendants in Italy

Abstract

The presence of foreign students in the Italian system has increased rapidly in the last few years. Today, they account for 7 per cent of the total student population. The enrollment of foreign students is characterized by a widespread schooling delay that increases for higher educational levels. Here, we would like to investigate if this delay for foreign students is influencing the perception of their school performance and the concentration in less demanding educational paths. Data from a national survey (ITAGEN2) involving more than 20,000 lower secondary school students, half of whom foreigners, are used to explore the factors affecting the perception of one’s performance and the level of future educational aspirations, evaluating the role of the migratory generation and the educational pathway. In particular, having more than one year’s delay leads to a negative perception of one’s abilities and possibly of schooling’s usefulness itself, and to the choice of low-profile educational pathways.