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International Handbook of Migration, Minorities and Education pp 419–433Cite as

School Performance of Children of Indian and Cape Verdean Immigrants in Basic Schooling in Portugal

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Abstract

The chapter is based on research that compares the school results in basic education in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area of pupils of different national origins—from Portugal, Cape Verde and India—and with different socio-cultural circumstances; it examines how far family dynamics and school processes are related to unequal performance. A questionnaire was distributed to 837 pupils at eight different schools, and ten parents were interviewed. The analysis showed that the performance of pupils of Indian origin is better than both Portuguese and Cape Verdean pupils, even when allowing for the effect of other structural variables. There are also differences between groups of pupils with regard to their family lives (relationship with country of origin and schooling) and their school experience (behaviour and relationship with people and learning).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The statistics available demonstrated this contrast (Entreculturas database/ME—1994/1995–1997/1998—and Giase/ME—2000/2001–2003/2004).

  2. 2.

    A pupil is considered of immigrant origin when at least one parent or grandparent was born in a foreign country.

  3. 3.

    Full results of the research can be seen in Seabra (2010).

  4. 4.

    The Portuguese school system comprises nine school years of Basic schooling (EB) divided into three cycles: 4 years in the first (1st CEB), 2 years in the second (2nd CEB) and 3 years in the third (3rd CEB)—followed by 3 years of Secondary/High School.

  5. 5.

    Portuguese-speaking African Countries (former-colonies): Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and S. Tomé and Principe.

  6. 6.

    http://www.sef.pt/portal/v10/PT/aspx/estatisticas/index

  7. 7.

    Council of Ministers Resolution nr 63-A/2007 in Diário da República, 1st series, nr 85, 3 May 2007.

  8. 8.

    Each variable has the value 0 or 1 as a response depending on the absence or presence of the attribute. Different levels of contact with Portuguese society were defined from the sum resulting from this indictor: Great when the value was more then 27; Average when it was between 22 and 27; Little if lower than 22.

  9. 9.

    A recent study comparing national systems (OECD 2007, p. 277) identifies the negative impact on student performance (in science) of ability steaming for all subjects within schools.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, ISCTE–Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, 1649-026, Lisbon, Portugal

    Teresa Seabra

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  1. Teresa Seabra
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Correspondence to Teresa Seabra .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Melton Center, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel

    Zvi Bekerman

  2. Hochschule für Soziale Arbeit, Institut Integration und Partizipation, Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, Riggenbachstrasse 16, Olten, 4600, Switzerland

    Thomas Geisen

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Seabra, T. (2012). School Performance of Children of Indian and Cape Verdean Immigrants in Basic Schooling in Portugal. In: Bekerman, Z., Geisen, T. (eds) International Handbook of Migration, Minorities and Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1466-3_27

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