Optimistic students: Occupational expectations of migrant youth in comparative perspective

This paper advances the research on migrant adolescents by comparing the occupational expectations of migrant and non-migrant students in 15 countries. Using the PISA 2006 survey we compare four categories of students: 1) non-migrants, 2) the second generation migrants who speak the host country language at home, 3) the first generation migrants who also speak the host country language at home, and 4) the ethnic migrants who speak their ancestral language at home. In previous studies, migrant youth have been found to perform less well academically than non-migrants in many of countries participating in PISA surveys. However, we find that these underperforming students have higher occupational expectations than the non-migrants, and the ethnic migrant students have the highest expectations of all. This latter pattern holds across all fifteen countries after controlling for differences in parents’ SES, gender, and students’ academic ability.  Drawing on the literature of marginal status we put forward an explanation for these patterns, and point to directions for future research.