Transition to post-compulsory education according to migrant background and gender in Catalonia: exploring the effect of non-native student concentration

The transition to post-compulsory education represents a fundamental educational decision that shapes young people's social and employment opportunities. However, these choices vary depending on social factors, such as socioeconomic background, immigrant origins, and gender, among others. The concentration of non-native students in schools may also influence these educational decisions, potentially disadvantaging students from lower social backgrounds. Using high-quality registration data from a cohort of students in their final year of compulsory education in Catalonia, Spain (N=82,923), this article analyses the probability of educational continuity -academic and vocational- or dropout, with special attention to the interaction between the immigrant background of the students and their gender. In addition, the impact of the concentration of non-native students in schools on students' educational decisions is analysed. The results reveal that non-native students, particularly boys, are less likely than their peers to follow more ambitious and higher-risk educational pathways. Conversely, native students are more likely to drop out of school, irrespective of their gender. When considering the level of non-native student concentration in schools, the findings suggest that variations in transition probabilities based on immigrant background decrease in environments with a more balanced composition.