2. Educational Domain

It should be noted that education was not one of the disciplines singled out for a general review, though it was addressed in the French language review. There is a large literature dealing with the education of immigrants and/or ethno-cultural minorities, and it includes issues of systemic racism in schools, educational achievement patterns, second language learning, and anti-racist education at all levels of the educational system. This literature was not really covered in any of the reviews. Only the disciplines of sociology and demography dealt minimally with the issue. One aspect of the educational attainment of immigrant children and children of immigrants -- possible over-representation in graduate university science departments and in public or private research laboratories -- could also be of interest to economists concerned with human capital issues.

The average level of educational attainment of immigrants compares well with that of the native born population. This is true both in English Canada and in Quebec, where the advantages for "allophones" persist strongly into post secondary education. Some of this advantage is a product of education obtained abroad, and our selective immigration policies. There is of course important variation in achievements among the roster of immigrant groups. But as suggested earlier this general advantage may be declining with some new (visible minority) immigrants, and the returns to education for immigrants may also be declining.

The evidence is that visible minority immigrant children, and children of immigrants also do as well or better academically than Canadian born students in Canadian school systems, despite allegations of racial bias in the schools. One recent study suggests this may be true even of refugee children (Yau, 1996). There is also no evidence that overall, female immigrant students suffer any gender-based disadvantage in educational achievement.

The experience of minority immigrant children in public schools also involves non-cognitive domains, such as peer interaction. Research in Quebec has addressed those sorts of interactions, including incidents of violence between majority and minority students, as well as among minority immigrant groups. This research has been mainly descriptive. But one study suggests that schools where immigrant students form a majority -- with many groups represented -- may lead to fewer confrontations than those in which they are a minority.

There has also been research -- controversial in some circles-- concerning the languages spoken by immigrant students outside the classroom, used to measure integration with (or socialization into) the francophone majority society. This has found allophone children, even in French schools, tilting to the use of English in informal settings.

Immigrant children who arrive knowing neither English nor French catch up with other children after several years, on average; those arriving at younger ages are doing better than those arriving when older. ESL programs are often unfair in their treatment of immigrant children. Using identical tests often results in lower placements of immigrant children. The performance of immigrant children in Canadian schools depends on a number of factors, including their age of arrival, prior knowledge of English and French and the educational attainment of their parents. These variables mirror determinants for the Canadian born.

One important area of the educational domain relates to the treatment of ethnic or heritage languages in public school systems, as well as the role of private ethnic schools of various sorts. In this sense education can be used as a vehicle for cultural retention, as much as the facilitator of integration. In Quebec, PELO programmes provide such heritage language instruction. There has been little long term evaluation of their efficacy for linguistic or cultural retention.

As could be expected, some important areas were left unresearched. Apart from those listed earlier, these would include the link between schools and ethnic youth gangs. (This would also belong to the social domain) In addition, educational policies relating to the issues of school integration and impacts on immigrant students, the flight of the native born to suburbs and exurbs, public financing of private ethnic or ethno-religious schools, ethno-specific schools within public school systems, have not been addressed. But these have been central to American policy debates on issues of race and may emerge as important considerations in Canada's major cities, which are also experiencing these forms of "white flight" and where conflict in school boards or between parents and teachers may reflect inter-group tensions.