Social Science Research Council

Migrants and their children now constitute more than half of the student body in many urban schools and post-secondary educational institutions in Canada, Europe, and the United States, presenting new challenges to these systems as they seek to prepare young people for employment and citizenship. Recognizing the importance of understanding the educational needs of immigrant and second generation students, and the institutional responses to them, the Social Science Research Council has organized a Working Group on Education and Migration.

The group held its first meeting in New York in April 2004 (for more information on this meeting click here). Participants discussed the ways in which challenges faced by immigrant youth are similar or different to those of native born children of non-immigrant parents, and the ways in which immigrant status interacts with class, race, ethnicity, and gender to affect their pathways through education into college or into the workplace. They considered what is known about how schools and universities have responded to the changing demographics of their student populations and how local context and different constellations of stakeholders affect policy in different states and cities in the United States. They also discussed the ways in which cross-national differences shape pathways through education for immigrant and second generation students.

The Working Group has now divided into two sub groups that are working on parallel but related projects. One group is focusing on the relationship between institutions and agency, examining the ways in which educational institutions within the United States have responded to the growing numbers of immigrant students and how immigrant families and communities navigate the educational system. The group held a meeting in New York in January 2005 and the members are currently preparing papers for an edited volume (for more information on the meeting click here).

The second subgroup is focusing on international comparisons and examining the ways in which cross-national differences in educational philosophy, and in institutional arrangements and practices, shape pathways through education for immigrant and second generation students and their subsequent socioeconomic and civic integration. The group held a meeting in London in February 2005 that was co-sponsored by the Nuffield Foundation (for more information on the meeting, click here). The group is currently revising the papers presented at the meeting for publication as an edited volume.