Young people with a migrant background

How well they integrate the offspring of immigrants can be considered a yardstick of host countries’ integration policies. In theory, because they were schooled in their parents’ host country, children of immigrants should not encounter the same difficulties as adult immigrants who arrived in a foreign country as workers, spouses, partners, members of the family, or as humanitarian migrants. Ultimately, their outcomes should be much the same as those of young people with no migrant background and the same social and demographic profiles. Yet that is not what happens in many host countries, particularly in Europe.The chapter begins by considering some basic demographic and immigrant-specific pointers that help situate young people with immigrant parents (). It then goes on to analyse how well integrated they are in host country schools (). It then assesses the educational level () and literacy skills of young adults of foreign parentage () and examines what share of young people have dropped out of school early (). The chapter then looks at the school-to-work transition () and proportions of NEETs () before addressing labour market integration (). The last area of focus is social inclusion and civic involvement: child poverty (13.16), voter participation () and, finally, perceived discrimination ().