Scholars have argued that, on average, immigrant students are 'optimists' and have higher educational aspirations than non-migrant students after accounting for students' socio-economic background and educational performance. However, ethnic minority groups, which proxy the different origin backgrounds of migrants, may show mixed findings in terms…

Often second generation young adults and their immigrant parents aspire high and towards general education despite a modest socioeconomic background. Little is known about the interrelation between educational aspirations and institutionally co-structured educational pathways. These interrelations are particularly important in an early tracking…

In this study I examine the academic self-concept (ASC) of students who changed from vocational to academic tracking at the transition to upper secondary education in Germany. I ask (1) how their ASC differs to the ASC of their established peers in academic tracking, and (2) how their ASC is affected by the change in the learning environment.…

Focusing on asylum seeker and refugee students attending a school with the stated mission to cater to recent immigrants, asylees, and refugees in Texas, we explored the school experiences of asylum-seeking and refugee middle schoolers and how they see their education. Having obtained political asylum in the United States, they are hiding from…

Given their lower socioeconomic background and achievement, immigrants and their descendants have been shown to make more ambitious decisions regarding educational transitions. While previous research has extensively analysed transitions within and after compulsory education, research on late transitions is scarce. This study focuses on the…

Ethnic identity (EI) can facilitate racially and ethnically marginalized youths' academic achievement but the mediating process by which it exerts its influence is unclear. This study examines how EI is associated with academic achievement through academic beliefs in a sample of Caribbean first and second generation immigrant adolescents whose…

Turkish immigrants who have been to Germany since 1961 have experienced many problems due to different reasons such as not recognizing the destination country, not knowing the mother tongue of the country, and xenophobia during the process of their integration into the region. One of the problems experienced by immigrants is that they cannot get…

Careers advisers in schools are of great importance. In order for the counselling to be effective, a social capital-intensive relationship must be built up between adviser and student, characterised by trust and shared understanding of roles and expectations. The aim of this quantitative study is to investigate the influence of a student's…

Drawing on a qualitative study conducted in Greece, the paper examines migrant young peoples' narratives of educational and occupational aspirations. The paper employs Bourdieu's theoretical framework to conceptualise aspirations as a product of "habitus" encompassing embodied dispositions shaped in the course of individual and familial…

A majority of newcomer youth who have recently migrated to the United States encounter a daunting task of mastering an entire high school curriculum in a new language while attempting to attain college readiness. Very little research exists that examines newcomer youths' transitions from high school to college. Utilizing interviews with six high…

High aspirations can be an important factor for educational attainment, especially for youth in disadvantaged schools who are otherwise more likely to leave school early. In this article, I study the relationships between pre-migration status, social capital, and educational aspirations among youth in disadvantaged Swedish schools, using data on…

Drawing on 48 in-depth interviews with Black immigrant and second-generation boys at Bridgewood secondary school in New York City, this article points out how the high educational aspirations expressed by Black African and Caribbean boys are strategically deployed as features of an ethnic project to counter anti-immigrant sentiments and anti-Black…

We examined the accounts of Latino immigrant parent's perceptions of the contributions they made to their children's educational persistence. A community cultural wealth model was used and our results indicated that aspirational capital was the most common form of capital reported, while parents frequently demonstrated linguistic capital for…

International student achievement comparisons have aroused interest widely across the world. Finland dominated the comparisons for a long time but now Asian countries have fared better. Both countries studied have faced abundant immigration, which has changed the student groups. In this article, we compare two quite different top countries:…

'Asian whiz kids' perfect test scores.' 'Selective schools and tiger parents.' These types of headlines highlight the increased visibility of academically successful students from Asian migrant backgrounds, in Australia and other Western countries. They also point to anxiety about the perceived aggressive 'tiger' parenting often associated with…