Children of post-war immigrants are leaving school and entering the labour market in increasing numbers in most of the countries of north-west Europe. Their achievements and the opportunities available to them in those countries are often regarded as the ‘litmus test’ not just for integration, but for the success or failure of policies in this field (Penninx 2003: 2). The experiences of these children may provide a clearer indication of the long-term prospects for integration into society than do the experiences of the first generation, their parents. Those who arrived in Europe during the post-war period were mainly recruited as...

The story of the Turkish second generation begins with their parents’ journeys to Europe. Their mothers and fathers left Turkey for various reasons, from different provinces, through different channels, and over a wide time span. They arrived in various European countries where they faced a wide variety of circumstances as they settled in neighbourhoods, entered the labour market, started families, and started to put a shape to their lives. This chapter asks to what extent the opportunities available to first-generation Turks varied according to their ‘sending state’ and their receiving cities and countries, and to what extent this led to...

This chapter provides an initial glance at the education outcomes at the aggregated level in and across Austria, France and Sweden. The aim is to draw an initial picture of how the Turkish second generation is positioned in terms of their education and how mobile they are based on the empirical material. Three perspectives are included:

Firstly, the levels of education attained by the Turkish second generation will be explored in relation to the respective comparison groups by asking whether equality of outcomes can be observed between the two groups in each individual country. Special attention will be given to...

As seen in chapter 3, the educational success of the Turkish second generation depends not only on the cognitive ability, motivation and aspirations of the children, but also to a large extent on the educational, social and economic resources available in their families. The education level of the parents in particular is one of the most important characteristics in the family context. This finding is in line with most of the international research on immigrant youth and schooling outcomes (Crul & Holdaway 2009; Heath & Brinbaum 2007; Portes & Rumbaut 1996; Zhou 1997). However, there are a number of scholars who claim that...

When explaining the educational success of the children of immigrants, the greatest attention has been paid to the characteristics of their families of origin. Previous studies of the second generation in the United States have revealed, however, that outside-family networks can provide additional resources which can help to overcome their often disadvantaged position at school (Gándara et al. 2004; Gibson et al. 2004; Kao 2001; Stanton-Salazar 2001, 2004, 2011). Specifically, close friends and teachers have been recognised as significant agents in strengthening the upward mobility of immigrant children. Up to now, no systematic research has been conducted in Europe on...

Previous chapters explored the relevance of individual characteristics in the schooling achievements of second-generation Turks both within and across countries. Cross-national differences in the importance of resources inside and outside the family home have been examined. All of these analytical steps have been conducted ‘within given education systems’ and without considering variations in the formal characteristics of education systems. These institutional variables had not yet been considered at the point where the attainment differences of the Turkish second generation and the comparison group were explained.

This chapter addresses the extent to which the institutional arrangements of national education systems shape...

The discussion about whether education systems and their various degrees of differentiation produce inequalities is an ongoing debate in the sociology of education. Most emphasis so far has been on the interaction between tracking and the socio-economic family background of students. Earlier studies pointed to more significant effects for social background in systems where students are selected at an earlier age (Comber & Keeves 1973 and Husen 1967, 1973, both cited in Van de Werfhorst & Mijs 2010: 417). Those findings have been confirmed in recent studies (Breen & Jonsson 2005, for example). If early selection has a negative effect on equality, then...

There is substantial literature on educational inequalities based on ethnicity and varying levels of educational mobility for children of immigrants in north-west European countries. Fairly stable patterns have been documented in various national studies indicating that children of immigrants in Europe whose parents originate from less-developed non-European countries perform below their respective majority student groups. In north-west Europe, ample attention is devoted to the children of Turkish immigrants, one of the largest groups in these countries and among the most disadvantaged groups in terms of education. Although these patterns are evident in most of these countries, first comparative studies point...