Some Reflections on the educational trajectories of migrant students in the European school systems

This paper proposes an analysis of the educational trajectories of the so-called disadvantaged students, among them migrant ones, at the transition point from lower secondary into upper secondary school/vocational education and training, i.e. the age group between 10 and 16 years. The data were collected in the European project ‘Governance of Educational Transition in Europe’ (GOETE). The main aim of this paper is to present the interactive aspect of students’ transitions in order to spot some different lights to the quantitative studies stating the serious migrant educational underachievement mainly attributed to structural causes. Instead, the findings of GOETE project highlight the interplay between socio-economic structures and family resources, institutional pathways and support provided by education (and welfare) systems, and the subjective motivation and orientation of the young people. Confronted with a transition demand, migrant students’ possibility to act and make their own choices is structured differently. However, our cases have demonstrated that under similar conditions, many of them adopt different strategies and develop reflexive approaches based on own values, interests and life perspectives. Age, gender and past school and life experience influence their capacity to follow or to contrast their actual weak situation.