Abstract

This article analyses the implementation challenges of compulsory schooling policies for recently arrived migrant students, questioning the tensions between projects and practices in several Southern European countries (France, Spain, Greece, Italy), where the arrivals of migrant children of compulsory school age have significantly increased since the beginning of the 21st century. It moves away from nationally centered perspectives, dominant in existing studies, and integrates the contributions of both social sciences on migration and compulsory education. While inequalities between native and migrant students in schools remain significant, we consider how national educational policies have been constructed and the tensions they reveal in debates and in the face of practices, balancing trends toward the separation of students and generalized injunctions for inclusion, implemented differently. We emphasize the persistence of forms of marginalization of migrant students, drawing from certain paradigms of emergency management.