The Short Term Effects of Immigrant Students on the Educational Achievements of Native‐Born Students
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12233 |
| Date | 01 October 2016 |
| Author | Svetlana Chachashvili‐Bolotin,Yossi Shavit,Hanna Ayalon,Sabina Lissitsa |
| Published date | 01 October 2016 |
The Short Term Effects of Immigrant
Students on the Educational Achievements of
Native-Born Students
Svetlana Chachashvili-Bolotin*, Sabina Lissitsa**, Yossi Shavit*** and Hanna Ayalon***
ABSTRACT
Since 1989 nearly one million immigrants from the FSU have arrived in Israel. Although well-
educated on average, most of these immigrants lacked economic means. The purpose of the
present study is to examine whether the presence of immigrants in schools affected the educa-
tional achievements of their Israeli-born peers. We analyzed data pertaining to 8,288 Israeli
tenth graders who attended 208 schools in 1994. Respondents’records were obtained from the
Ministry of Education and the Bureau of the Census. Using hierarchical models we examined
the effects of the proportion of immigrant students in a school and of their parents’education
on the probability that Israeli-born students in the school would earn matriculation certificates.
Results did not yield evidence of any negative spillover effects on the educational achieve-
ments of the native students. Moreover, the presence of many immigrant students with high
educational backgrounds increased the likelihood of Israeli-born students earning matriculation
certificates.
INTRODUCTION
Over the past three decades, developed countries have witnessed a dramatic increase in the number
of incoming international migrants. In this context, the question of whether the presence of immi-
grant students has an effect on the educational attainment of peers in the same learning environ-
ment becomes particularly relevant.
By the late 1990s approximately one million people had immigrated from the Former Soviet
Union (FSU) to Israel (Sicron, 1998). Although most of them arrived with limited economic means,
their educational level was quite high (Al-Haj and Leshem, 2000). In the mid-1990s about 10 per
cent of all Israeli school students were immigrants (Chachashvili-Bolotin, 2007;2011). Although
Israel has been an immigrant country since its establishment, so that the arrival and absorption of
new immigrants in the education system was not a new occurrence, the Ministry of Education did
not formulate any long-range strategy for integrating these immigrants in the education system.
Instead, it focused on immigrant children as individuals and based its educational integration policy
on the concept of immigration as a transient phenomenon (Sever, 2002). Accordingly, no educa-
tional policy was formulated that took into account the possible impact of immigrant students on
Israeli-born students in terms of educational achievements.
* Ruppin Academic Centre, Israel
** Ariel University, Israel
*** Tel-Aviv University, Israel
doi: 10.1111/imig.12233
©2016 The Authors
International Migration ©2016 IOM
International Migration Vol. 54 (5) 2016
ISS N 00 20- 7985 Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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