The Study "Immigrant Students at School: Easing the Journey towards Integration", prepared from data of the PISA education program of the OECD, argues that there has been a small setback in school integration of immigrants these last few years. Spain is one of the countries where the difference between the results obtained in Mathematics by native and foreign students increased in the past decade. Only Italy, France, Iceland and Finland have experienced a higher increase of differences between 2003 and 2012. One possible factor to consider is a 5.5 points growth of 15-year-old first-generation immigrants in Spain when the average of the OECD countries is only 0.4 points.

A part of the paper, dedicated to a comparison of the feeling of belonging among students in Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg and Portugal, reveals that first generation immigrants students declare to be more aligned with the educational system than those who do not have immediate foreign origins. In Spain, Luxembourg and Norway, however, second-generation immigrants expressed a greater sense of belonging to the schools than the first generation. In countries with "very selective immigration policies" as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Qatar, both first and second generation immigrant are more emotionally connected to the education system.

The study also demonstrates that schools with higher rates of immigrant children tend to be located in poor neighbourhoods. This finding complements a report published by the OECD which concluded that the Academic success or failure of children of immigrants is not determined by their origins but by their socio-economic environment. The study also emphasises the importance of "education policies to complement social policies towards integration", especially if they seek to improve language skills, while acknowledging that the "development of education policies to meet the needs of foreign students is not easy”, especially if priority is not given to language support. Therefore, the OECD experts proposed, among other alternatives, to ensure the educational integration of immigrant students and create permanent linguistic support services "as soon as possible" in school. A service that has been implemented in Catalan reception classrooms more than a decade ago and is currently undergoing reform.

For more information on the state of education in Spain from a comparative perspective, see the OECD's Education at a Glance 2015 report of Spain or the MIPEX2015 Spanish Country Profile.