Transcript No Slide Title

Policy recommendations that
may contribute to better
education outcomes of
immigrant children
The case of
Switzerland (OECD
Economic Surveys 2007)
Migration inflows have been large
per cent of population
The impact of immigration on economic
performance in Switzerland have been large
• Between 1982 and 2005, per capita GDP
growth was 0.9%.
• 0.5 percentage point is accounted for by
the extra labour input provided by
immigrants (age composition, labour
market participation).
• Evidence suggests there were no large
adverse effects of immigration on
aggregate productivity growth.
Differences in unemployment rates between
natives and immigrants are large (2003)
Measures to help immigrant children’s education
outcomes
• Improve labour market integration of
parents.
• Reduce the impact of socio-economic
(immigration) background on education
outcomes.
Some benefits of raising education outcomes of
children with poor socio-economic background
• Higher educational attainment leads to
higher employment and wage levels.
• Higher educational achievement helps
reduce the spread of income distribution
(reduces unskilled labour).
• A given distribution of income can be
achieved with lower efficiency costs that
result from redistribution of income.
Immigrant children have lower educational
attainment than native children
• Learning outcome differences between migrant
children and natives are more marked than in
other OECD countries.
• Foreign children are more likely to be streamed
into lower-learning programmes.
• Foreign children are more likely to leave school
without an upper secondary degree.
Streaming of pupils in lower secondary
education by migration status
Recommendations helping to improve
labour market integration of immigrants
• Make cautious use of measures to avoid social
dumping in wages.
• Continue to improve the system for recognising
qualifications (for workers from outside the EU),
and implement scheme to validate skills
acquired through experience.
• Improve incentives to acquire skills in official
languages, including through a nation-wide
certification system.
Recommendations regarding labour
market integration of immigrants
• Remove barriers to mobility within Switzerland
(local differences in requirements for
naturalisation).
Recommendations to improve education
outcomes of immigrant (and other) children
• Better co-ordinate provision of pre-school
education across local governments. Geographic
spill-overs may result in under-funding.
• Step up non-selective educational models in the
lower secondary cycle.
• Spain: make child benefits conditional on
attendance of secondary school beyond 16 years.