Ethnic Segregation and Educational Outcomes in Swedish Comprehensive Schools: A Multilevel Analysis

Ryszard Szulkin, Stockholm University
Jan O. Jonsson, Swedish Institute for Social Research

We ask whether ethnic segregation in Swedish comprehensive schools, fueled by increased residential segregation and increased immigration during the 1990s, are associated with depressed educational outcomes. We compare immigrant children and Swedish-born pupils with foreign-born parents with those of Swedish ancestry (the reference group). The data are based on two entire cohorts who graduated from comprehensive school in 1998 and 1999 (188,000 pupils and 1,043 schools), linking educational information from schools with Census data on socioeconomic characteristics of parents. Using multilevel analysis we find grade differences to the advantage of the reference group. For second generation immigrants, but not immigrant children, these are accounted for by socioeconomic characteristics of the family of origin and of the composite socioeconomic status in schools. We argue that differences in school quality are unlikely to produce these results.