Integrating Immigrant Children into Schools in Europe

Chapter 2 – Demographic TrendsThe proportion of pupils in the total school population, whose first language is not the language ofinstruction, is very high in Luxembourg and Liechtenstein in which they represent around one-fifth of allpupils. In Denmark, Germany, Austria and Sweden, the proportion of pupils in the same linguisticcategory varies between 6 % and 8 %.In the majority of countries, the proportion of pupils whose first language is not the language ofinstruction is less than the proportion whose parents were born abroad. Thus the French Community ofBelgium and France enrol a proportion of pupils whose native language is not their school language,which is much lower than the proportion of pupils whose parents were born abroad, because of the scaleof immigration from French-speaking Africa to both countries. Ireland and the United Kingdom (Englandand Northern Ireland) for their part both gain from the status of English as an international language.England is also home to a substantial number of immigrants from the former English-speaking colonies.In Luxembourg also there is a considerable disparity between the proportion of pupils whose firstlanguage is not the language of instruction and the proportion of those whose parents were bornabroad because two of its official languages are identical to those of the three countries bordering it.In three countries (Hungary, Iceland and Bulgaria), the proportion of pupils whose first language is notthe one used at school is greater than the proportion of those whose parents were born abroad. Thisapparently atypical situation may be attributed to the size of indigenous linguistic communities whosenative language is not an official national language.** *The statistical data contained in this chapter have provided a broad illustration of major characteristics offoreign populations in the European Union. More specifically, they indicate how the situation variesenormously from one country to the next in terms of immigration. In some countries, the foreignpopulation corresponds to a very small proportion of the total population so they are less concerned bythe need to develop school-based measures for young immigrants. Conversely, in some countries theproportion of 15-year-old pupils who were born abroad is higher. This situation may go hand in handwith large numbers of these pupils in some schools and a high proportion of pupils who at home speak alanguage other than the language of instruction.As emphasised at the outset, fully consistent statistical data that provide the grounds for a wholly reliablecomparison are rarely available. Definitions of the target population vary from one survey to the next anddo not always correspond to the definitions used at national level. Furthermore, it is not possible to usethis statistical material either to evaluate the difficulties that immigrants may experience in integrating atschool, or to measure the proportion of those for whom support measures may be available. The secondpart of this survey will attempt to give a comparative account of national definitions of immigrantchildren and the measures introduced in different education systems throughout Europe, in order tofurther the school integration of children of immigrant origin and to develop an intercultural approach toschool activities.31