In recent PISA studies participating East Asian countries fared exceptionally well (OECD 2013:5). Even though eastern and western school systems are structured differently, pupils with East and South-east Asian immigrant background are also doing well in western educational systems (Rumbaut 2005; Zhou 1998). According to German educational statistics, pupils with Vietnamese immigrant background have higher participation rates in academic tracks, compared to pupils with other immigrant backgrounds, and even higher participation rates than pupils without immigrant background. Germany has an early tracking system, which separates the pupils after the 4th school year into different secondary school types, depending on performance and recommendations by class teachers. The best performing pupils are steered to academic track schools called `Gymnasium´. 60 or more per cent of pupils with Vietnamese background visit a Gymnasium, whereas the average for all pupils is roughly 30 per cent. This is remarkable as the educational participation and performance of pupils with migrant backgrounds in Germany is marked by large disparities when compared to their autochthonous peers (Kristen/ Granato 2004). Still, little attention has been paid to reasons for the extraordinary success of the pupils with Vietnamese background, who belong to one of the largest Asian migrant population in Germany. Research findings show, that despite of the low economic capital of Vietnamese families, the children outperform their autochthonous peers in reading and mathematics performance tests (Walter 2011). The analyses were based on PISA-data. None of the background factors that usually explain performance differences led to satisfactory explanation in this case.

This state of research is taken up in the research project ‘Herkunft und Bildungserfolg HeBe’ (Origin and educational performance) which will be presented in my contribution. We assume that (migrant) families of different origin perform different strategies of investment in education, which leads to varying beneficial outcomes (Nauck 2010). These strategies are probably rooted in cultural traditions from the society of origin. The preservation of such traditions may be associated with strong mutual support within the ethnic community and accompanied by retention of culture-specific educational habits (Portes & Zhou 1993). In the case of Asian school systems, which are influenced by Confucianism, private extracurricular tutoring systems have been established since long. Private sources add up to a large portion of educational expenses (OECD 2010; FIBS 2008; Bray 2009). Such strategies may be transferred by Asian migrants into the host societies. 

Bray, Mark. 2009. Confronting the Shadow Education System: What Government Policies for What Private Tutoring? UNESCO-IIEP. Paris. Kristen, Cornelia/ Granato, Nadia. 2004. Bildungsinvestitionen in Migrantenfamilien. In: IMIS-Beiträge: 23. p. 123-141. Dohmen, Dieter/ Erbes, Annegret/ Fuchs, Kathrin/ Günzel, Juliane. 2008. Was wissen wir über Nachhilfe? – Sachstand und Auswertung der Forschungsliteratur zu Angebot, Nachfrage und Wirkungen. Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Berlin. Nauck, Bernhard (2010): Kulturelles und soziales Kapital als Determinanten des Bildungserfolgs bei Migranten? In: Becker, Rolf (Eds.): Integration durch Bildung: Bildungserwerb von jungen Migranten in Deutschland. OECD - PISA. 2013. PISA 2012 - Ergebnisse im Fokus. Was 15-Jährige wissen und wie sie dieses Wissen einsetzen können. (http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-overview-GER.pdf, accessed January 20, 2014). OECD - PISA. 2010. Education at a Glance 2010. How much public and private Investment is there in education?: Table B3.1. Relative proportions of public and private expenditure on educational institutions, for all levels of education (2000, 2007). Portes, A., & Zhou, Min. 1993. The New Second Generation: segmented assimilation and its variants. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 530. p. 74–96. Rumbaut, Rubén G.. 2005. Turning points in the transition to adulthood: Determinants of educational attainment, incarceration, and early childbearing among children of immigrants. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 28. p. 1041–1086. Walter, Oliver. 2011. Der Schulerfolg vietnamesischer und philippinischer Jugendlicher in Deutschland. Eine Analyse auf der Grundlage der Erweiterungsstichprobe von PISA 2003. In: Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 14: 3. p. 397-420. Zhou, Min/ Bankston III, Carl L.. 1998. Growing Up American - How Vietnamese Children Adapt to Life in the United States. Russell Sage Foundation.