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part v curriculum (counter)discourses · 2 5 · intercultural curriculum in neonationalist europe Between Neonationalism and Austerity Giovanna Campani Introduction In comparison to their peers, many of the children coming from migrant backgrounds1 have lower levels of school performance. There are fewer migrant children enrolling in pre-primary and higher education. Furthermore, the share of early school leavers is much higher among these children. In some countries, these issues have worsened from the first to second generation migrants, indicating that education systems are failing to promote integration. This statement, quoted from the green paper “Migration & Mobility: Chal- lenges and Opportunities for EU Education Systems” (European Commis- sion, Education Committee, 2008) has been confirmed by numerous studies conducted in each European country, including those by the “Programme for International Students Assessment” (PISA), which evaluates all European Union (EU) member states. Two reports are especially meaningful: the PISA 2009 Results: Learning Outcomes of Students with an Immigrant Background (OECD, 2010) and Untapped Skills: Realising the Potential of Immigrant Chil- dren (OECD, 2012).2 All of these studies agree that the causes of this phenomenon (under- performance by children from immigrant backgrounds) cannot be attributed to children’s individual characteristics. On the contrary, it results from a 482 giovanna campani combination of factors that are principally the consequence of educational system attributes and the educational policies implemented by the coun- tries of destination. Important factors are the degree of differentiation and the degree of standardization (which play an important role in relation to class differences as...