'I receive, you gather, she compensates': Comparative analysis of the politics of integration of immigrant school children in three Autonomous Regions

Abstract

With the passing of the la Ley Orgánica de Mejora de la Calidad Educativa [Reform Act of Improvement of Quality in Education] reemerges one of the timeliest educational issues: decision-making in the field of educational policy that takes care of immigrant students. The present moment is an excellent excuse for, from the perspective that Comparative Education offers, the revision of how the collective of immigrant children has been educated through three models of educational management represented by three Autonomous Communities: Valencia, Catalonia and Andalusia. The article focuses on the analysis of the measures taken in these three cases concerning the reception, the welcoming, and the schooling of immigrant children, using a qualitative methodology based on the comparative method: the descriptive study (analytical phase) presents an explanatory scanning of the measures adopted on management policies of immigrant students, through the content analysis of primary and secondary sources. Regarding results, in the synthetic phase, after juxtaposing the principal criteria which are similar or different in the three presented models, it must be admitted that the three Autonomous Communities have their own singularities, which derive from their own historical backgrounds, economic and political conjunctures, and their educational and social aims, influenced by contexts where certain factors have had a significant weight. Apart from institutional prominence, remarkable differences appear in certain measures, but also coincidences, as for example policies that support the language of the region in each of the presented cases. Finally, the section of comparative conclusions proposes a number of elements which the autonomous communities should acquire, which are present in some of the analysed models. Attention to the language of immigrant students and care for the inclusion of an intercultural education in the curricula of the education centres, are two of the most significant actions.