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IMMIGRATION

Performance gap between immigrant pupils and native Swedes has grown: report

The performance gap between pupils born in Sweden and those born abroad has increased sharply as a consequence of demographics shifts according to a new report into the factors behind immigrant pupils performing worse than native Swedes.

Published: 29 May 2017 16:15 CEST
Performance gap between immigrant pupils and native Swedes has grown: report
File photo of Swedish primary school grades. Jessica Gow/TT

The report by the Swedish Ministry of Finance's Expert Group on Public Economics (ESO) studied data covering all pupils who completed primary school in Sweden during the period between 1988 and 2014. Results showed significant differences in performance between immigrant and native pupils: while just over 90 percent of all pupils born in Sweden qualify for upper secondary school, for foreign-born pupils the figure drops to 65 percent.

And the difference increased sharply in 2008, “explained by a shift in the demographic composition of foreign pupils in terms of region of birth and age at arrival”.

ANALYSIS: How is Sweden tackling its integration challenge?

Pupils who moved to Sweden after the typical school starting age of seven, as well as those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds perform particularly poorly according to the study.

Those born in Africa and unaccompanied refugee children have a “significantly higher risk” of failing school. That can be linked to the average age at the time of immigration being higher for those groups compared to other immigrant pupils, meaning they have less time in their new country before they need to complete school.

READ ALSO: Lottery system for Swedish school enrolment met with criticism

With a record number of refugee children coming to Sweden in recent years, and an upper secondary school education key to entering the labour market in the country, the current situation could be problematic for integration efforts in the future, researchers warned.

“With many more foreign born students the pressure on society's capacity to integrate increases. Measures need to be broad, targeting students in school but also their parents in order to reduce exclusion,” Hans Grönqvist, one of the researchers involved in the report said in a statement.

One of the key findings in the study is that socio-economic status of parents is strongly linked to the size of the performance gap, as is the importance of neighbourhood of residence.

Almost the entire gap disappears if foreign born and native pupils have the same socio-economic background and live in the same neighbourhoods, it observed:

“In particular the analysis shows that the gap decreases when we compare the achievements of immigrant and native students who attend the same schools”.

“Broad societal efforts to improve the socio-economic status among immigrants could be a way to improve the school achievement of their children,” the researchers concluded. 

READ ALSO: Family background key to school performance, Swedish study shows

CRIME

Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Germany said Tuesday it was considering allowing deportations to Afghanistan, after an asylum seeker from the country injured five and killed a police officer in a knife attack.

Published: 4 June 2024 14:50 CEST
Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Officials had been carrying out an “intensive review for several months… to allow the deportation of serious criminals and dangerous individuals to Afghanistan”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told journalists.

“It is clear to me that people who pose a potential threat to Germany’s security must be deported quickly,” Faeser said.

“That is why we are doing everything possible to find ways to deport criminals and dangerous people to both Syria and Afghanistan,” she said.

Deportations to Afghanistan from Germany have been completely stopped since the Taliban retook power in 2021.

But a debate over resuming expulsions has resurged after a 25-year-old Afghan was accused of attacking people with a knife at an anti-Islam rally in the western city of Mannheim on Friday.

A police officer, 29, died on Sunday after being repeatedly stabbed as he tried to intervene in the attack.

Five people taking part in a rally organised by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam, were also wounded.

Friday’s brutal attack has inflamed a public debate over immigration in the run up to European elections and prompted calls to expand efforts to expel criminals.

READ ALSO: Tensions high in Mannheim after knife attack claims life of policeman

The suspect, named in the media as Sulaiman Ataee, came to Germany as a refugee in March 2013, according to reports.

Ataee, who arrived in the country with his brother at the age of only 14, was initially refused asylum but was not deported because of his age, according to German daily Bild.

Ataee subsequently went to school in Germany, and married a German woman of Turkish origin in 2019, with whom he has two children, according to the Spiegel weekly.

Per the reports, Ataee was not seen by authorities as a risk and did not appear to neighbours at his home in Heppenheim as an extremist.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors on Monday took over the investigation into the incident, as they looked to establish a motive.

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