The school careers of immigrant's children in France: success and disillusions

This paper will describe the school careers of immigrant children and analyze the patterns of educational inequality in France. It will provide an analysis of immigrant's educational expectations viewed in relation with their children's school careers, taking into account the impact of social, ethnic and geographical origin. In this perspective, we use a rich longitudinal dataset (Ministry of Education 1995 Panel). We point out higher educational expectations among immigrant parents, as compared with native parents of similar social background. High expectations and consistent efforts turn out to be important elements of educational achievement. However some discrepancy appears between parents' expectations, children's expectations and their observed school career. This is mostly obvious among young people of North African origin who are frequently dissatisfied with their previous educational orientation in the vocational or technological track Such discrepancy can be a source of frustration for parents as well as their children