Schooling Transitions of Migrants and Refugees in Switzerland. Analysing Sub-National Differences Using Exhaustive Administrative Data

Aljoscha Landös , Université de Genève
Philippe Wanner, University of Geneva

Post-settlement studies confirm that the transition to adulthood is particular problematic for young refugees due to the pre-migration experiences (Boyle and Ha 2016:82-88). Despite an increasing political and scientific interest in integration particularly of young refugees, little statistical data aiming at monitoring the schooling integration in Switzerland have been published. This paper explores the transition to post-compulsory education of young migrants and refugees in Switzerland using and combing exhaustive register data with detailed analysis of the cantonal context (institutional settings, integration policy, economic and demographic context). How does the reason of immigration determine the transition to post-compulsory education? And how do institutional settings on sub-national level influence the transition? The literature on educational inequalities underlines the importance of individual characteristics as the socioeconomic status and the origin as well as contextual factors such as institutional settings and residential characteristics in understanding the differences in schooling trajectories. Our results confirm several studies by showing a significant disadvantage of both young refugees and more precarious permits. By analysing the impact of both individual and contextual factors according to the reason for immigration, we observe a distinct effect of these factors for the two sub-groups that can be explained by the migration pathway. In addition to the various individual factors, the residential context can act as a protective factor by providing a favourable environment for integration. However, our multilevel models show a limited impact of this context.

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 Presented in Session 23. Legal status and life course of immigrants