Difference in reading scores between non-immigrant and immigrant students Europe 2018

One of the key ways in which disadvantage is transmitted from one generation to another is through missed educational opportunities. Immigrant students in Europe often fall behind the children of native-born parents, whether this is because of language difficulties, more difficult living situations at home, or through the lack of durable social networks in the country where they recieve their education. As of 2018, Finland was the country in Europe where immigrant children had the greatest difference in mean reading scores when compared with non-immigrant children, after accounting for gender and the students' and schools' socio-economic profile. This means that an equivalent immigrant child will achieve a mean reading score 74 points below that of a non-immigrant child. 

Several countries in Europe perform far better in this indicator, however, with the United Kingdom, Russia, France, and Germany - all countries with large immigrant populations - having differences of less than 20 points. Cyprus and Serbia were the only two countries in Europe in 2018 which showed the reverse trend: in these countries immigrants performed better than non-immigrant students by several points.