Social Integration of Second Generation Students in the Italian School System

Abstract

Abstract Cultural divides and prejudice complicate the processes of integration and acculturation of migrant families living in a foreign country. Evaluating the impact of such phenomenon can be crucial for social stability and policy making. In this context, the education system has a leading role in fostering and attaining social integration, in particular when it comes to younger sections of the migrant population. In this work, we propose a method for the construction of a quantitative indicator capturing social integration of second generation students in the Italian school system according to areas defined by nationality of the students and administrative region in which they attend school. The indicator, based on survey data, is estimated by means of a 2-step methodology. In the first step, we choose an individual qualitative variable capturing social integration at the unit level, and we compute a first direct estimate of the indicator as the proportion of highly integrated students in each area. Such variable is isolated following alternatively a proxy variable approach or a latent variable model approach. In the second step, we make use of two alternative small area models to improve the estimates, dealing with missing values, low sample size and high variability in smaller domains. At the end, the 2-step methodology results in 4 alternative versions of a synthetic indicator of social integration, that can be used to rank nationalities and administrative regions.

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