A matrix of educational policies to support migrant students across Europe

Increase in immigration in Europe, with many migrants of school age, has highlighted the need to understand how to best support migrant students’ integration. Integration strategies can vary significantly between countries, creating a complex mosaic of approaches which can be challenging to understand and analyse. Educational policies are shaped by a range of policy choices made by local and national governments regarding the economy, welfare, and foreign policy. Rather than viewing education policies in isolation, we propose an integrated approach considering a broader policy landscape. First, we develop a matrix that considers migrant integration in schools within the wider education welfare regimes and approaches to inclusion and diversity. Then, to validate the proposed matrix, we compare migrant inclusion strategies in 29 countries in Europe to consider a patchwork of policy choices within those three areas. The findings highlight the complexity of interaction between education policies and the broader integration environment and demonstrate how policy choices are deeply rooted in a country's cultural, social, and historical contexts. Finally, we discuss how the proposed matrix can be used to systematise analysis of migrant students’ education as an analytical tool for researchers undertaking comparative studies and suggest areas for improvement in future analysis.