The seminar discussed how ethnic clustering during compulsory schooling affects post-compulsory educational outcomes among ethnic minority students. The impacts of students’ exposure to foreign language speakers and speakers of their own foreign language on their educational tracks are examined, so are the difficulty of vocational education, and projected labour market outcomes. The findings suggest that that a higher share of foreign language speakers in the cohort increases a student’s probability of entering the vocational (vs. academic) track; this effect is amplified by an increasing share of peers speaking the student’s own foreign language. Furthermore, it leads to less difficult vocational education and lower predicted earnings. The drivers of these peer effects are shown to be related to language acquisition, ambition, and networks.

Presenter: Annatina Aerne (a post-doctoral researcher in sociology at University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Her current work focuses on migration, labor market integration and training in Europe and Latin America. She has earned a PhD from the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. Her dissertation analyzed the contemporary art market cooperation of art organizations in Bogotá, Colombia.).

Chair: Andrew Geddes (holds a Chair in Migration Studies and, since January 2017, has been the Director of the Migration Policy Centre. During his career, he has led and participated in a large number of major projects on aspects of international migration working with a wide range of academic and non-academic partners).

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