Guidelines

To address the risk of early school leaving by immigrant students, you can act at the level of the system, of the classroom and of relational aspects.

1. Try to know and understand the institutional mechanisms that engender school inequalities, such as concentrating immigrant students in schools that are crowded with socio-economic disadvantaged students.
2. Understand that the disruptive behaviour of students can be explained by difficulties to grasp a new culture. Work in the classroom on the values of citizenship, solidarity and mutual respect.
3. The student’s background can have an impact on their behaviour/studies. The teacher and/or educational counsellor should know about the reasons of the migration (a war refugee could be traumatised) and the circumstances in which the migration took place (one or both parents may have stayed in the country of origin...)
4. Be aware that success, particularly with immigrant students, is based on a triple “authorisation”: (1) to be different from one’s parents; (2) the adult must allow it; (3) the child cannot allow their parents to stay what they are and be proud of it.
5. Take the personal and social skill development of immigrant students into consideration; if your students are at risk of dropout you may want to focus on feelings management, assertiveness training, conflict management skills and self-knowledge as well as on social rules.