Context

• Author: Eurydice (European Education and Culture Executive Agency)
• Pages: 35-48

35

CONTEXT

Before examining the policies for integrating students from migrant backgrounds into education, it is

necessary to provide some contextual information. This chapter examines recent data on migration

and education in Europe, including migrant populations, migrant student attainment levels, and

migrant students’ sense of belonging and bullying experiences at school. Discussion of the first two

issues is based on Eurostat data, while the latter aspects are examined based on two sources of

survey data: the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2016 (1) and the 2016

International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) (2).

Migration population and education statistics

The first section of this chapter examines recent demographic data on immigration in the European

Union. The proportion of migrants in the whole population (see Figures 12 and 13), and in the youth

population (see Figures 14 and 15) will be investigated. In addition, recent data on students leaving

the education and training system early (see Figure 16) and the educational attainment level of

migrants (see Figure 17) will be examined, the latter with reference to the Programme for International

Student Assessment (PISA) (3) data.

In 2016, annual immigration in the European Union was only slightly higher than in 2007

As a result of both intra-EU mobility and immigration from outside of the EU, European populations

have become increasingly diverse, although the annual number of immigrants has fluctuated

somewhat in recent years. Figure 12 shows that from 2007 to 2009, there was, in fact, a significant

decrease in migration of almost one million people over the two years.

Figure 12: Annual immigration into European Union countries (EU-28, in millions), 2007-2016

2007 3 987 446

2012 3 319 296

2008 3 705 523

2013 3 416 826

2009 3 097 091

2014 3 787 809

2010 3 233 624

2015 4 659 324

2011 3 273 680

2016 4 282 894

Source: Eurostat, Immigration by age group, sex and citizenship [migr_imm1ctz] (Data extracted in June 2018)

Explanatory note

The figure shows the annual immigration into European Union reporting countries, and it includes both intra-EU and migration

from outside the EU to the reporting country.

Country-specific notes

Belgium: Data missing for 2008 and 2009.

Bulgaria: Data missing for 2008-2011.

Romania: Data missing for 2007.

(1) https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/pirls2016/index.html

(2) https://iccs.iea.nl/home.html

(3) http://www.oecd.org/pisa/