Immigrant youths: Between early leaving and continue their studies

School enrollment and early school leaving are crucial issues in many EU countries, with Italy playing a central role in the European context. According to Eurostat data, in 2011 Italy is ranked 28th for early leaving from education and training (ELET) among 33 countries. Large school dropout rates, less success in studies, loss of school years, and lack of concentration, which are directly involved in the labor market, are the main issues that children of immigrants in the Italian school face. This paper contributes to the growing literature on these issues and highlights its main characteristics and determinants. The main source of this work is the first (and only) survey on the Condition and Social Integration of Foreign Citizens in 2011-2012 of ISTAT (National Institute of Statistics in Italy) released in 2017. The survey collects data on families with at least one foreign citizen and provides unprecedented information on foreigners living in Italy. The data allowed us to associate each young immigrant student with parents’ characteristics (e.g. age, citizenship, degree of study, family type) and provided information about the type of schooling (e.g. loss of school years, perceived discrimination in class, amount of homework). Using logistic regression models, we analyzed three different dichotomous dependent variables: non-enrollment at school, intention to enroll in university and early school leaving, and training of young people of foreign citizenship. This paper evaluates their association with some individual demographic characteristics, family socio-economic context, school inclusion, and (or) the average level of family integration. The results show that the risk of not being enrolled in school is significantly lower for girls, increases with age, is higher in Southern Italy (i.e. double compared to the Northern area), is higher for those encountering problems with the language, and increases with age on arrival in Italy. Family characteristics play a decisive role, in that young foreigners living without parents exhibit a greater risk of not being enrolled in school, the same is true for those with low-educated parents. When analyzing the intention to enroll in university, it was also possible to use variables related to the study path of young foreigners. The intention of not going to university is clearly associated with school failure and with parents’ low interest in following their children’s school career. The analysis on early leaving from studies and training confirmed the afore-mentioned results. In particular, the risk of early leaving from studies and training affects young people who arrived in Italy between 13 and 17 years, especially Albanian or Chinese citizens. Even in this case the role of parents is decisive.