Integrated vs. Separated Schooling for Refugee Children: Long-Term Effects on Education and Assimilation

Caterina Pavese, Simon ter Meulen and Ludger Woessmann
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Caterina Pavese: University of Bologna
Simon ter Meulen: ifo Institute, LMU Munich
Ludger Woessmann: LMU Munich, ifo Institute

No 588, Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series from CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition

Abstract: Does direct integration into native schools or temporary placement in separate schools better promote the education and cultural assimilation of refugee children? In the Netherlands, primary-school-aged refugee children are placed in either integrated or separated schools depending on their randomly assigned municipality. By contrast, all secondary-school-aged arrivals are initially separated. We exploit this institutional setting in two-way fixed-effects models with age-at-arrival and municipality fixed effects. Using rich administrative data, we find that integrated schooling reduces educational attainment at age 18, particularly for children of lower-educated parents. At the same time, integrated schooling increases cultural assimilation, measured by hormonal-contraceptive usage among teenage women, particularly for children from non-Muslim-majority countries. A distinctive feature of separated schooling that may account for its positive educational effect is that it allows employing teachers specialized in native-language teaching for non-native speakers.

Keywords: refugee children; schools; integration; educational attainment; contraceptives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I24 J13 J15 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-10-05
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