Children who arrive in Europe as immigrants or who have immigrant parents face a variety of barriers to success in European school systems. Some may not speak the language of instruction fluently or have interrupted prior schooling. Others may find their access to top-notch programs and schools limited by their family’s incomplete knowledge of how European education systems work. Students who arrive in their mid- to late teenage years also frequently face a race to plug linguistic and subject-matter gaps in order to earn a degree before aging out of the system.

Many of these challenges existed before the 2015­–16 European migration crisis. Yet the arrival during 2015-16 of more than 750,000 children with diverse linguistic backgrounds, experiences with formal education, and needs for psychosocial support brought fresh urgency to debates about how to best adapt European education systems to support the integration success of migrant-background children and families. While many policymakers have pledged their support to the principle of mainstreaming—the idea that public services should be evaluated and adjusted to ensure they are able to serve diverse populations—implementation across EU countries, localities, and individual schools remains uneven.

Read the full report about how Europe's education systems boost migrant inclusion by Aliyyah Ahad and Meghan Benton at Migration Policy Institute.