In this paper I focalize on a specific point of time of the educational career of a student in Italy: the passage from lower to secondary school. Statistics show that immigrant youths have a higher risk to choose vocational schools compared to natives.  Is it the only possible outcome? The importance of focusing on the typology of secondary school is motivated for two reasons: first, the choice of the school influences the future educational attainments of the students; second, the lower incidence of foreign student in the high schools might be investigate for avoiding the risk of school segregation process. Through qualitative data, based on interviews with foreign young people enrolled various educational tracks, their parents and Italian teachers, I’ll investigate how the school is chosen and especially in which way teachers intervene in this decision-making process. 

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