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Refugees and the Educational Attainment of Natives

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  • Green, Colin P.

    (Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU))

  • Vaag Iversen, Jon Marius

    (Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU))

Abstract

There has been a recent rapid increase in immigration into Europe, specifically in the form of refugees and asylum seekers. This raises a range of social challenges and a particular focus is education and school systems. A growing body of research investigates the impact of immigrants on native test score performance. In practice this reports very mixed results and a difficulty is that immigrant groups are often pooled together due to data restrictions. We return to this issue using Norwegian register data that allows us to distinguish refugees from other immigrants. Using narrow within-school, within-family comparisons combined with the Norwegian refugee settlement system we demonstrate marked negative effects of refugee children on the test score performance of their native school children classmates. These effects are simply not present for other immigrants, and stem primarily from refugee children who themselves are most at risk of low performance. These negative effects are concentrated on students at most risk of underperformance, boys and children from lower educated backgrounds, and may reflect a lack of compensatory inputs at schools.

Suggested Citation

  • Green, Colin P. & Vaag Iversen, Jon Marius, 2020. "Refugees and the Educational Attainment of Natives," IZA Discussion Papers 13433, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13433
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    1. Brunello, Giorgio & Rocco, Lorenzo, 2013. "The effect of immigration on the school performance of natives: Cross country evidence using PISA test scores," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 234-246.
    2. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2011. "Too Young to Leave the Nest? The Effects of School Starting Age," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(2), pages 455-467, May.
    3. Torberg Falch & Astrid Marie Jorde Sandsør & Bjarne Strøm, 2017. "Do Smaller Classes Always Improve Students’ Long-run Outcomes?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(5), pages 654-688, October.
    4. Rosario Maria Ballatore & Margherita Fort & Andrea Ichino, 2018. "Tower of Babel in the Classroom: Immigrants and Natives in Italian Schools," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(4), pages 885-921.
    5. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2005. "The More the Merrier? The Effect of Family Size and Birth Order on Children's Education," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 120(2), pages 669-700.
    6. Timothy M. Diette & Ruth Uwaifo Oyelere, 2014. "Gender and Race Heterogeneity: The Impact of Students with Limited English on Native Students' Performance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(5), pages 412-417, May.
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    Cited by:

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    4. Akira Shimada, 2021. "Does The Host Country Experience The Brain Drain Or The Brain Gain By Accepting Study Migrants?," Economy & Business Journal, International Scientific Publications, Bulgaria, vol. 15(1), pages 260-277.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    educational attainment; refugees;

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

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