Conference Program

Educational inequalities related to migration have long been analysed through the bourdieusian lens of reproduction (Bourdieu and Passeron 1964, 1970). Children of migrants were considered working-class children. In fact, when controlling for socio-economic status, it was argued they outperformed their native peers (Vallet & Caille 1996). The latest PISA report (OCDE 2025) confirms this general trend at the level of OCDE average.

However, when disaggregated, this finding does not hold for all countries (OCDE 2025, Agirdag 2020). As argued by Ichou (2018), speaking of “foreigners” or “immigrants”, is essentializing and homogenizing practice, which conflates very different migratory trajectories and experiences. As such, he argues one must consider the premigratory status of families to grasp their subjective social position, which accounts better for their cultural capital. As such, Ichou shed light on the importance of migrant selectivity in educational inequalities.

Against this background, the absent research on the impact of precarious migratory statuses in Europe stands in contrasts with research on irregular latino/as in the US (Bernal-Areval et al. 2021). This gap constitutes a conspicuous epistemological blind spot in educational sociology considering how migration policies have become ever more restrictive, leading to a variety of precarious migratory statuses (de Haas, Natter & Vezzoli 2016).

This presentation aims to start filling this gap through a first, tentative, systematic review of the literature. Crossing a bourdieusian lens with migration studies, it first seeks to understand what the different experiences are of pupils with precarious migratory status (asylum seekers, undocumented, refugees), how this affects their socialisation, and how the school is blind for it and devalues it. It then asks, to what extent the school’s blindness for these different forms of socialisation potentially reproduces the border and as such acts an institution of border control. The conclusions are intended to guide future research.