The secondary education choices of immigrants and non-immigrants in Italy

The choice of secondary schooling, which is not compulsory in Italy, is important for youths because it affects future opportunities for employment and social mobility. Secondary schooling also plays a role in the social integration of immigrants. To ascertain the presence of differences between young Italian natives and immigrants in education choices, two datasets for 2009 were used: the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) and the Italian Survey on Income and Living Conditions of the Families with Immigrants in Italy (IT-SILCFI). Analysing a sub-sample of young Italians and immigrants, aged between 16 and 19 years old, the association of both individual and family explanatory variables with the choice of secondary schooling (yes, no) was assessed using logistic models. The main results show that young immigrants tend to interrupt their schooling earlier than their Italian counterparts. However differences disappear when family background and parental characteristics are accounted for.