Peer Effects, Social Multipliers and Migrants at School: An International Comparison

This article analyses the school performance of migrants and peer group effects in different national schooling environments. Using data from the international OECD PISA test, we consider social interaction within and between groups of natives and migrants. Results based on social multipliers suggest that both native-to-native and migrant-to-migrant peer effects are higher in ability-differencing school systems than in comprehensive schools. Thus, non-comprehensive school systems seem to magnify the prevailing educational inequality between students with a low parental socio-economic migration background and children from more privileged families.