%0 Report
        %A Pavese, Caterina
%A Meulen, Simon ter
%A Woessmann, Ludger
        %T Integrated vs. Separated Schooling for Refugee Children: Long-Term Effects on Education and Assimilation
        %D 2026
        %8 2026 Sep
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 18979
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18979
        %X Does direct integration into native schools or temporary placement in separate schools better promote the education and cultural assimilation of refugee children? In the Netherlands, primary-school-aged refugee children are placed in either integrated or separated schools depending on their randomly assigned municipality. By contrast, all secondary-school-aged arrivals are initially separated. We exploit this institutional setting in two-way fixed-effects models with age-at-arrival and municipality fixed effects. Using rich administrative data, we find that integrated schooling reduces educational attainment at age 18, particularly for children of lower-educated parents. At the same time, integrated schooling increases cultural assimilation, measured by hormonal-contraceptive usage among teenage women, particularly for children from non-Muslim-majority countries. A distinctive feature of separated schooling that may account for its positive educational effect is that it allows employing teachers specialized in native-language teaching for non-native speakers.
        %K refugee children
%K schools
%K integration
%K educational attainment
%K contraceptives