Educational Spillovers of Refugee Integration: Evidence from Language Support and Ability Sorting in Switzerland

Siwar Khelifa, Bruno Lanz and Marco Pecoraro

No 25-05, IRENE Working Papers from IRENE Institute of Economic Research

Abstract: We exploit the 1990-2000 inflow of Yugoslav refugees to Geneva to examine two understudied yet policy-relevant integration mechanisms for refugee pupils: language support classes, provided prior to integration into regular classes, and sorting based on academic ability within regular classes. We find that a higher share of refugees in language support classes is associated with a lower probability of grade repetition for lower-achieving immigrant pupils of the same grade and school, but a higher probability for native pupils. Additionally, we find that grouping refugees with incumbents of similar academic ability improves the educational performance of higher-achieving incumbents and lower-achieving immigrants, while negatively affecting lower-achieving natives. Our findings offer novel insights into the trade-offs of refugee integration policies, emphasizing the need to balance support for refugee pupils with minimizing potential adverse effects on incumbent pupils.

Keywords: Education; Refugees; Incumbent pupils; Peer effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 H75 I21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages.
Date: 2025-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-mig and nep-tra
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:irn:wpaper:25-05

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