Immigrants, schooling and background. Cross-country evidence from PISA 2006

Using data from PISA 2006, we examine the performance of immigrant students in different international educational environments. Our results show that immigrant gaps – differences in scores with respect to natives - are smaller where educational systems are more flexible and students’ mobility between courses and school curricula is higher. Unlike previous studies, our analysis reveals no direct relation between these gaps and the schooling models, be they comprehensive or tracking, adopted by countries.