This study seeks to examine the success of voluntary immigrants in Grade 6 French immersion with a double comparison to Canadian-born (a) Anglophones and (b) multilingual students (children of voluntary immigrants). The findings, that show the immigrant students to outperform the other two groups in French and English, are explored through a cultural-ecological lens suggesting that voluntary immigrants to Canada are positive about education in general and, despite experiencing discrimination, are positive about official language bilingualism in particular, thereby having a positive impact on their results where more traditionally examined influential variables did not (e.g. metalinguistic awareness).