Inequalities in pre-school learning contexts by immigrant background

In many Western countries, children with foreign-born parents are lagging behind children with native-born parents in school performance. In the policy debate much hope is placed on the potential of pre-schools to remedy this, by providing a learning and language environment that can compensate for the disadvantages that these children face. We study inequalities in pre-school learning contexts by immigrant origin, using full population register data that matches all children to their families and pre-schools. Enrolment in pre-school is lower for children of immigrants, but this is – surprisingly – almost entirely driven by low enrolment of children in non-refugee families. Contrary to expectations, children from origin groups with larger school difficulties have high pre-school enrolment rates. Our results suggest that explanations for low enrolment should primarily be sought in intentions to remain long-term in the host country.In pre-schools, immigrant background children have a somewhat higher teacher density, but a somewhat lower density of qualified teachers, and a somewhat higher turnover rate and sickness absence among teachers. These differences are however small. Where we see large differences is in the composition of the child and teacher group: Immigrant-background children go to pre-schools where a much higher proportion of teachers and children have immigrant background. We conclude that hopes to equalize school outcomes through encouraging pre-school enrolment are misplaced, and equalizing structural indicators is unlikely to make a big difference. The compensatory potential of pre-schools lies primarily in a de-segregation of staff and children across pre-schools.