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

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