Do immigrant students' reading skills depend on how long they've been in their new country?

Abstract

In most OECD countries, newly arrived 15-year-old immigrant students show poorer reading performance than immigrant students who arrived in their new country when they were younger than five. Students who emigrated from less-developed countries where the home language differs from their new language of instruction are particularly vulnerable to the “late-arrival” penalty in reading performance. Immigrant students from countries with similar levels of development and the same language as the host country do not suffer any late-arrival penalty at all.