IMMIGRANT STUDENTS:THE DISTRIBUTION of immigrant students across schools in Ireland is more even than in other countries, the ESRI has found.
The research found that more than 70 per cent of immigrant students are from non-English speaking countries and, as a result, more than half of principals surveyed for the paper reported language difficulties among a significant proportion of their immigrant students.
The study found no evidence of school segregation in relation to immigrant students relative to international comparisons, but it states that there are a number of differences between the distribution of immigrant students in the primary and second-level sectors.
Around 90 per cent of second-level schools recorded immigrant students in their student body, but this was the case for just 56 per cent of primary schools, where pupils came from more clustered communities.
“Almost half of immigrant students attending primary schools are in schools with an immigrant student body of over 20 per cent and one in five are in schools with an immigrant student intake of over 40 per cent,” the study Adapting to Diversity by Emer Smyth, Merike Darmody, Frances McGinnity and Delma Byrne of the ESRI found.
“Most second-level immigrant students are in schools with a low proportion (between 2 to 9 per cent) of other immigrant students,” it continues.
