ABSTRACT
As a consequence of post-war migration and family reunion, school populations in the Netherlands, as in other West-European countries, have become increasingly multi ethnic. Migration conditions in general, and labour migration in particular, are most often associated with social disadvantage in the host society. This initial disadvantage is to some extent reproduced in the second generation through an emerging ethnic stratification in West-European school systems. In the Netherlands, consistent reports of academic underachievement in minority youth, Turks and Moroccans in particular, have caused concern that a home made form of ethnic educational inequality has emerged (see Veenman, 2001). The main aim of this chapter is to explore the precise nature of the relationship between ethnic minority status and school achievement, and to uncover the connecting mechanisms that may account for this relationship.
