Among the many subjects measured in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a worldwide study led every three years by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) into the academic performance of 15 year-olds in both OECD and non-OECD countries, is the relative performance of pupils from an immigrant background.
In its overview report on France, the latest PISA study, published in December, found that, even after taking into consideration the social and economic environment of their families, “pupils with an immigrant background show scores that are inferior by 37 points to those of pupils from an indigenous background, which is equivalent to almost one year of studies (against an average 21 points among OECD countries)”. The study’s definition of an immigrant background is that of first- and second-generation immigrant pupils.
The latest PISA study chose mathematics as the key subject in its comparison of results. It set a scale of levels of learning, in which level 2 represented those with such little grasp of the subject that they were likely to be unable to continue studying beyond the minimum school-leaving age. In France, pupils from an immigrant background accounted for 43% of level 2, compared with 16% in Canada and Australia.
The OECD’s findings are in marked contrast with official French statistics which, for many years, have indicated that in a comparison of pupils from the same social environment, the performance at school of those from an immigrant background was either the same, or even slightly superior, to those from indigenous families.
“One can’t say that there’s a contradiction, because the same elements are not being controlled and the methodology used is not at all the same,” commented Catherine Moisan, head of the French education ministry’s department in charge of evaluating academic performance, the ‘Direction de l'Evaluation, de la Prospective et de la Performance’ (DEPP), and who supervised the PISA study’s research in France. “PISA is a photo shot of performance at 15 years’ old. The [French] studies in question concern scholarly paths and the levels of diplomas.”
Instead of looking at a pupil’s aptitude at a given moment for resolving, for example, a mathematical problem – which is what the PISA study does – the French education ministry’s research takes into account the diplomas obtained by a pupil and which is the result of several factors, including scholarly environment, family goals and academic orientation choices.
But importantly, the French research on the subject offers little insight into the performance of second-generation pupils. Do these have the same opportunities for success, or the same ambitions as the larger population? Such essential questions escape what are still rudimentary official studies and which are limited by a number of stumbling blocks. Not least of these is a certain taboo that to question the functioning of schools concerning this issue is to bluntly question the myth held by many in the state education system that a pupil’s origins are intrinsically of no concern, and to run the risk of joining ethnic considerations to performance at school.
However complex such research might be, these are questions that cannot be left ignored. For as the PISA study demonstrates a greater scholastic failing among these pupils which is not down to their social origins alone. A move towards more insightful research on the subject was included in a survey led by France’s National Institute for Demographic Studies, INED , and the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies, INSEE. Entitled ‘Trajectories and Origins’ (TeO), the wide-ranging survey, carried out between 2008-2009, examined the role of a person’s origins on their living conditions and social evolution, while also considering other factors such as their local environment, age, sex and educational status.
Results differ among immigrant groups and girls and boys
“The questions of integration and discrimination are at the centre of public debate,” notes a presentation of the survey, “but France still lacks national statistics to study these issues. The TeO survey is designed to supply data for this purpose.” With the cooperation of some 22,000 respondents living in mainland France, it provides information –otherwise sparse - on the academic paths of immigrants who have recently settled in France from sub-Saharan Africa, South-East Asia and Turkey.
In a forthcoming article to be published in INSEE’s regular publication, the Revue économie et statistique, researchers Yaël Brinbaum and Jean-Claude Primon, who both contributed to the survey’s report, note that the gaps in academic performance between pupils of immigrant origin and those of the majority population “almost completely disappear after taking into account the social and family environment” – except for two groups; those of Turkish descent, and those of Central African and West-African Guinean origin have a higher likelihood of obtaining no academic diplomas, including the school-leaving baccalauréat exam. Pupils of South-East Asian origin obtained the best results.
“It is also important to combine sex and origin, which PISA does not do,” underlined Yaël Brinbaum. With the exception of those of Turkish origin, girls from immigrant backgrounds were found to perform better at school than boys from immigrant backgrounds.
One part of the ‘Trajectories and Origins’ survey asked respondents who were the children of first generation immigrant parents whether or not they felt that the school system had shown discrimination against them because of their origins; in terms of orientation of their studies (i.e. between curricula that potentially offer higher or lower professional prospects), in the marks they received for schoolwork, in disciplinary measures and punishment, and in the manner in which they were addressed by staff. A total of 15% believed they had been unjustly treated concerning the orientation of their studies, while another 8% perceived discrimination against them in either marking or disciplinary measures and punishment.
The perceptions of unjust treatment at school varied according to the immigrant origins of the respondents. Those who felt most discriminated against were of sub-Saharan African origin (33%), followed by those of Turkish origin (31%) and North African origin (30%), who as a whole make up the group of pupils from an immigrant background who achieve the fewest academic qualifications. Among respondents who were of South-East Asian origin, who in comparison were more successful at school, 14% felt they had suffered discrimination.
“It is interesting that the subjective impression of discrimination be heard, but it seems to me that the link with discrimination that is real and objective has not yet been sufficiently studied,” commented Fabrice Dhume, an academic researcher specialized in the study of the social integration of immigrants in France, and a teacher at Montpellier University. “What my studies show is that this feeling is sometimes expressed at times when there is objectively no discrimination, but which expresses a discrimination that could have taken place years beforehand, such as when repeating a class year at primary school.”
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English version by Graham Tearse