Parents’ attitudes towards students with a background of migration—Does the background of migration matter?

Highlights

• Parents with a migrant background show more positive attitudes.

• Fathers show positive attitudes towards students with lower cultural differences.

• Mothers with a higher level of education had more positive attitudes.

Abstract

As linguistic heterogeneity in classrooms is rising constantly, it was shown that attitudes play a role in the inclusion of students with migrant backgrounds. This paper focuses on attitudes of parents towards students with a migrant background and how variables such as parents’ level of education, cultural differences, and their own background of migration shape their attitudes. To this end, data from 876 parents (486 mothers and 390 fathers) was assessed, and it was found out that parents with a migrant background displayed more positive attitudes towards the inclusion of students with a background of migration in contrast to parents without a migrant background. Moreover, fathers displayed more positive attitudes towards students with lower cultural differences compared to students with higher cultural differences. Furthermore, mothers with a higher level of education had more positive attitudes towards students with a migrant background compared to mothers with a lower level of education.

Introduction

The demographic heterogeneity in Western European countries has risen continually in the past years, making the countries increasingly multicultural (Schachner, Brenick, Noack, van de Vijver, & Heizmann, 2015). Due to the increasing immigration to European countries, host members have been observed to have negative attitudes towards immigrants (Barni, Cavazza, Russo, Vieno, & Roccato, 2020). As a result of the rise of students with migrant backgrounds, linguistic heterogeneity in Austrian classrooms has also been constantly growing (Braunsteiner, Fischer, Kernbichler, Prengel, & Wohlhart, 2019). This is reflected in the current data from Statistik Austria for the school year 2017–18, which showed that 26 % of the students enrolled had a family language that was different from the language of instruction, which was German (Statistik Austria, 2018; Statistik Austria, 2021).

Educational institutions play an important role in bringing about social change, and their goal is the recognition of and the knowledge of cultural differences in order to facilitate a respectful contact between majority and minority groups (Fowers & Richardson, 1996). Multicultural classrooms should, therefore, be seen as a place where students can acquire social skills and learn the values of tolerance, openness, and empathy (Dessel, 2010). The assessment of educational skills of migrant students are often affected by the teachers’ interpretation of educational policy or education standards (Nortvedt et al., 2020). Nayir et al. (2019) found a significant trend within the promotion of heterogeneity in schools, namely, complementary assessments for learning strategies that should support the learning of students.

The attitudes of the general public – in our case, the attitudes of parents – tend to influence the process of inclusion of minorities, however (Burge, Quellette-Kuntz, Hutchinson, & Box, 2008), and impact their acceptance of heterogeneity.

The issue of immigration generally elicits specific reactions from various populations. It was additionally observed that attitudes towards immigration are influenced by specific characteristics such as age, education, and urban/rural location (Card, Dustmann, & Preston, 2005). In this study, we decided to focus on parents’ attitudes, as they play a significant role in terms of the implementation of inclusivity (Paseka & Schwab, 2019). This is because, to a certain extent, parents can participate in their children’s choice of school. Moreover, parents may provide an external view of inclusive practices.