Discrimination against migrant kids hurts them and the discriminating country

This figure from The Economist shows that the performance of immigrant students is predicted by both the country from which they come and the country to which they go. It is based on information from the surveys of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The article from which it is drawn notes:

At least in theory, the new findings should help counter some of the sillier things that policymakers say about the influence of migrants on a country’s overall attainments. “When we started to do the PISA rankings in 2000, many countries were shocked at how badly they did,” says Mr Schleicher. “And excuses we often heard were: ‘We get too many migrants,’ or, ‘we get the wrong sort of migrants.’”

Although immigrant children typically do worse at school than locals, there is no country-wide effect. The OECD’s analyses show an insignificant correlation between the number of immigrant children a country has and the average pupil’s attainment—and it is countries with more immigrant children that do (slightly) better.

It also notes that immigrants tend to be more motivated to obtain an education than the native kids. The great performance of Chinese immigrants in Australia and New Zealand attests to the good job done by their schools and the potential of the immigrant students. It also suggests that New Zealand and Australia will do well in the globalizing knowledge economy.