The composition by origin of Spanish youth has changed radically in the last 20 years due to international immigration that began in the second half of the nineties. Currently, one in four young people aged 15 to 29 years have a foreign-born parent. However, the youth of foreign origin have had to cope with a brutal economic crisis at the time of entering the workforce and planning to be independent, with poorer educational preparation and lower social capital. In most EU member states, both first-and second-generation young people suffer more youth unemployment than their counterparts of European origin, and are more likely not to follow educational or vocational training programs. According to the report Indicators of Migrant Integration 2015, the Early School Leaving (ESL) rate among students born outside the EU is almost double that of the population as a whole, with a difference of 18 points in the case of Spain, one of the countries where this difference is most pronounced, despite having one of the highest average ESL rates. Furthermore, the Eurostat/EC 2011 report on Migrants in Europe also showed that these figures are higher among young second-generation children of immigrant parents in the case of Spain. In the context of the European project FP7 RESL.eu (Reducing Early School Leaving in Europe), this chapter will comparatively analyse the academic careers and the conditions for social integration of young people of immigrant and non-immigrant origin in various programmes and measures to combat ESL (preventative, interventional and compensatory) through a selection of case studies.

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