In the UK, children from immigrant families tend to perform better than their peers, making the country a rare bright spot in the latest global education rankings. The issue for policymakers is that no one really knows why.
First- and second-generation immigrant students in the UK scored, on average, 1.2 points higher than non-immigrant students across the OECD’s math, science and reading tests. That puts Britain in the company of Cyprus, Montenegro and Malta as the only European countries where they outperform children with at least one native parent.