Inequality of opportunity in education: Insights on native and immigrant students in France

Abstract

This paper investigates the educational inequality of opportunity (EIoP) between native and immigrant students in France before and during the pandemic using data from the 2018 and 2022 cycles of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). By applying the Oaxaca- Blinder decomposition technique, the study also identifies the key factors contributing to educational disparities, focusing on individual characteristics, socioeconomic background and home environment. The results show that immigrant students consistently underperform compared to native students across all subjects, with the largest gaps observed in science and reading. However, it seems that France’s proactive response, particularly the quick return of students to school, helped prevent the deepening of the pre-existing gap in educational performance be- tween these two groups. Despite this intervention, pre-existing EIoP persisted, driven by systemic factors such as language proficiency and reading access, which remained unaffected by the pandemic. These deeply embedded factors continued to shape EIoP in France, even in the face of a significant shock like COVID-19. Additionally, the analysis reveals that EIoP are influenced by school location, with students in urban areas generally performing better than those in rural areas.