Intergenerational Educational Mobility in Europe: Comparing Second-Generation Immigrants and Natives through Welfare Regimes

Mattia Capelli , University of Florence
Elisa Barbiano di Belgiojoso, University of Milano-Bicocca

From a life-course perspective, education functions both as an outcome of family and individual resources and as a key driver of social and economic opportunities. Across Europe, children of immigrants represent a rapidly growing population, reshaping integration processes and the demographic composition of education systems. Although educated within the same institutions as their native peers, their outcomes remain influenced by individual characteristics, parental socioeconomic background, cultural heritage, and structural factors such as school stratification, welfare support, and discrimination. Drawing from the European Social Survey data (Waves 7–11), this study examines whether second-generation immigrants achieve higher intergenerational educational mobility than natives and how these patterns vary across European educational regimes and parental origins. Three research questions guide the analysis: (RQ1) patterns of educational intergenerational mobility differ between individuals with, without, and with a mixed migration background; (RQ2) mobility patterns differ by the interplay of the structural context and individual backgrounds in terms of opportunity of upward mobility and downward risks; (RQ3) outcomes also vary by broader institutional configurations, such as educational inclusion approach and broader welfare-state capacities. Multinomial logistic regressions estimate predicted probabilities of mobility outcomes, showing heterogeneity: while similar patterns of immobility are observed in some educational regimes and across migrant origins, individuals with two immigrant parents exhibit the highest upward mobility in the Scandinavian and Western regimes, showing stronger equalising effects, while experiencing higher risks of downward trajectories in the Mediterranean regime. Overall, results highlight that upward mobility among the second generation coexists with institutional barriers.

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 Presented in Session P4. Migration, Migrants, and Mobility