The Delayed School Progress of the Children of Immigrants in Lower-Secondary Education in Italy

In Italy, foreign children are often enrolled in classes at a lower grade than that of their age group (what we term in this article 'delayed school progress'), mainly because of language problems. On their education pathway they also encounter more difficulties than their Italian schoolmates, as evidenced by the smaller numbers of successful exam results. This brings about a widespread delay in their schooling, which grows as the education levels increase. In this paper we seek to identify the causes of this delay using data from a national survey (ITAGEN2) involving more than 20,000 lower-secondary-school students, half of whom are foreigners. The risk of such delay for the children of immigrants remains significant, even with equal resources and commitment, equal socioeconomic and housing conditions of the family and relations with their peers. This clearly indicates that the integration problems experienced by immigrants' children in the Italian school system can negatively influence their subsequent schooling progress and reduce their opportunities for social mobility in the labour market and a positive insertion in Italian society.