In 2009, a study of inclusive education for children and youths at risk was conducted in the University of Barcelona: “Competencies and keys for an educational success from the perspective of college students’ children of immigrants” (2009 ARAF1 00010). In this research key factors were identified regarding immigrants’ education in relation to their families by studying their expectations; their actions to support their children’s education (helping doing their homework, attending school meetings, encouraging them or teaching responsibility); their positive value on education and their beliefs on it as a mechanism of social promotion. 

Based on those study results, in 2013, within the framework of a master thesis, a new research project was conducted with the aim of understanding the positive influence of immigrant families on the educational success of their children; educational success seen as the enrolment in programs beyond compulsory education.

For this study we took into account a series of questions with the aim to discover, understand and describe experiences about these complex situations to comprehend this phenomenon in detail:

1. Why do immigrant students continue to be a vulnerable group having educational results below native students?
2. Is the school the unique context which influences the educational success of immigrants and immigrants’ children?
3. Is family participation in schools an influence on the social integration of immigrants and immigrants’ children?
4. Which are the favouring elements for the immigrants’ educational success related to their families?

This study aims to inform about specific cases and specific persons, through an educative investigation which offers insights on immigrants’ educational success figures; about the human situations that may explain these results; and ultimately, about why this phenomenon is happening. 

In Spain the foreign population in 2010 was 12.2%, this means that between 2000 and 2010 immigrant population multiplied by six (Cáritas, 2010). Specifically in Catalonia (Spain) where this research takes place, the foreign children are about a quarter (234,268) of all children of Spain (1,005,945) and they represent the 17.1% of children in Catalonia (Truñó, 2012).

Unfortunately, in some cases, the migratory processes these families have to experience may impact negatively on the academic trajectories of those students who have migrated due to breaches in the educational processes or for the difficulties some of these young adolescents experience at the moment of joining the Catalan high schools.

Many immigrants of school age do not continue their studies beyond compulsory education obtaining just the elementary education and presenting a 55% of risk of failure against the 34% of native students (Estellés et al., 2012).

The family institution is a fundamental part of the construction of the individual. Families are the primary influence on the educational motivation of the child, followed by the school and the community (CIIMU, 2007). When we talk about social capital, we are referring to the important cultural and social factors that affect the individual child and how these factors are related to what the parental believes, and how they interact with their children (Coleman, 1998). A lot of researchers who have studied the subject consider the family as the element that provides the most social capital to children. They refer to the importance of the parents’ good relationship with their children, with the school and with other parents, as a key factor for the educational success of their children (Oseguera, Conchas i Mosqueda, 2013).

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