A matrix of educational policies to support migrant students across Europe

Increase in immigration in Europe, including many migrants of school age, has highlighted the need to understand how best to support migrant students’ integration. Integration strategies vary significantly between countries, resulting in a complex mosaic of approaches that is difficult to analyze. 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 examining education policies in isolation, this study adopts an integrated approach considering a broader policy landscape. We develop a matrix that considers migrant integration in schools within the wider education welfare regimes and approaches to inclusion and diversity. To validate the matrix’s relevance, we compare migrant inclusion strategies in 29 European countries, revealing a patchwork of policy choices within those three domains. The findings highlight the complexity of interaction between education policies and the broader integration environment and demonstrate how policy choices are deeply rooted in each country’s unique cultural, social, and historical contexts. We conclude by discussing how the proposed matrix can serve as a tool for comparative research on migrant students’ education and suggest directions for its further development.