The role of immigrants’ children in shaping educational ambitions of natives

The growing presence of children with immigrant backgrounds in the Italian school system has spurred social scientists to investigate the impact of these children on natives’ performances.
This paper investigates the effects of the increasing number of migrants in schools on the individual educational expectations and aspirations of Italian students attending 8th grade.
Multilevel analyses are performed using data from ITAGEN survey (2005-2006 school years) and from official information of the Italian ministry of education.
Results demonstrate that attending a school with a high share of foreigners has no impact on realistic expectations about secondary education of Italian students, nevertheless it leads to a reduction of their own long term university aspirations.
Moreover, students attending schools where there is higher level of integration (measured as percentage of Italian students with immigrant friends) are more prone to have high short term educational expectations.