Children of immigrants in Finland, on average, have dramatically lower educational skills than children of natives do, according to a study published in the Journal of Economic Geography.
This difference can be attributed to age at arrival, parental income and neighborhood quality.
The concerns related to the integration of immigrant children are stressed especially in the capital region where about half of the population with an immigrant background have settled.
According to the study, about 75 percent of children with a native background graduate from upper secondary or vocational school by the age of 20. The corresponding number of immigrant children is 46 percent.
“The reason is partly related to the fact that children of immigrants proceed in their studies slower than children with native background,” says the study.
The study notes, interestingly, that Finnish-born children of immigrants obtain more education than children of natives growing up in the same zip codes and in families with similar parental income and family structure.
In fact, those children of immigrants in Finland who have a similar family structure and live in the same zip code are four percent more likely to finish upper secondary education by the age of 23.
