The role of parental involvement, school resources and family environment on educational expectations of natives’ and immigrant children in Europe

Our paper explores to what extent school resources, parental involvement in school and family environment shape educational expectations of migrants and natives in four European countries: Belgium, Ireland, Italy and Portugal.

We use unique cross-national data from the PISA2009 on children aged 15 that include information on the student, the parental home, the school and its interaction.We show that first and second generations are more likely to envisage that they stop their educational career at the end of secondary school than native
children.
Furthermore, the second generation overall has lower educational expectations than the first generation. School resources have a positive effect on educational expectations and reduce the gap between migrant and majority students.

Parental background and possession of home resources enhance educational expectations and diminish the difference between migrants and natives. Although family environment is found to play a key role on the
expectations to reach tertiary education, school resources and parents involvement in school are found to be less important for shaping these expectations.
The interaction between parents and school is relevant primarily for preventing minority students from leaving the educational system at an early stage. The school environment thus shapes educational expectations, but less so for those children who already have high expectations.