École et migration : un accord dissonant ?

Whether they arrive alone or with their family, legally or illegally, school-age children make up a considerable part of migratory flows. Those who are of foreign nationality or were born outside metropolitan France have overwhelmingly experienced education "elsewhere". And there are those of French nationality who regularly communicate with their parents in a language other than French.
Yet, by promoting the national culture and language, isn't French education accentuating the importance of ethno-cultural origin in educational performance? What educational schemes and policies can bolster the aspiration of social mobility which goes hand in hand with migration projects? What do tracking surveys say about schools’ capacity to enable “newly arrived” pupils to achieve in the same way as “longstanding” pupils? To what extent does the history of immigration and travelling determine not only school recruitment but also teaching practices?
Faced with the flows and itineraries of young people of immigrant origins, child refugees or young “travellers”, schools display varying degrees of inflexibility depending on their social reference framework, and sometimes unprecedented flexibility.
Looking at both migrant pupils and the children of immigrants, this interview with Ferdinand Buisson will provoke discussion on schools’ current capacity and limitations with regard to leveraging migration as a social mobility project, as a reclassification test and as a means of accessing rights.