Educational trajectories of immigrant-origin youths in Finland : a mixed-methods analysis

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=cjew20 Journal of Education and Work ISSN: 1363-9080 (Print) 1469-9435 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjew20 Educational trajectories of immigrant-origin youths in Finland: a mixed methods analysis Liila Holmberg, Mira Kalalahti, Janne Varjo, Joel Kivirauma, Marja-Liisa Mäkelä, Minna Saarinen, Tuomas Zacheus & Markku Jahnukainen To cite this article: Liila Holmberg, Mira Kalalahti, Janne Varjo, Joel Kivirauma, Marja-Liisa Mäkelä, Minna Saarinen, Tuomas Zacheus & Markku Jahnukainen (2018) Educational trajectories of immigrant-origin youths in Finland: a mixed methods analysis, Journal of Education and Work, 31:7-8, 563-578, DOI: 10.1080/13639080.2018.1549728 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2018.1549728 © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Published online: 11 Dec 2018. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 753 View related articles View Crossmark data Educational trajectories of immigrant-origin youths in Finland: a mixed methods analysis Liila Holmberg a , Mira Kalalahti a , Janne Varjo a , Joel Kivirauma b , Marja-Liisa Mäkelä b , Minna Saarinen a , Tuomas Zacheus b and Markku Jahnukainen a a Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland; b Department of Education, University of Turku, Finland ABSTRACT This article examines the educational trajectories envisioned by immigrant-origin youths. The mixed-methods research draws upon quantitative (N = 445) and interview data (n = 112). Whereas most prior research focuses on educational achievement or educational attainment of immigrant-origin youth, this article focuses on their outlooks concerning education and occupation. We determined the educational and career aspirations and expectations immigrant-origin youths have and in the ways their aspirations differ from those of Finnish-origin youths. We also seek to discover how this possible aspiration paradox is reflected in the trajectories envisioned by immigrant-origin youths. We confirm earlier findings showing that immigrant-origin youths have both a strong belief in education and the will to achieve success in tertiary-level education. We also argue for diversity of vocationally oriented youth: whereas Finnish-origin youths often share determinate vocational outlooks, immigrant-origin youths are more likely to aim for tertiary education via vocational education. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 20 December 2017 Accepted 7 November 2018 KEYWORDS Educational transitions; immigrant-origin youth; career aspirations; educational aspirations Introduction In this article, we examine the envisioned trajectories of Finnish students during their final year of compulsory education (9th grade). Drawing on mixed methods and data, we approached the issue by describing and contrasting the educational and career aspirations of youths of immigrantand Finnish-origins. By immigrant-origin youths, we refer to (1) first-generation immigrants, who were born abroad, (2) second-generation immigrants, whose parents were both born outside Finland and (3) youths from mixed-origin or multicultural families, that is, a family consisting of a union between a person with immigrant origins and a native Finn (cf. Rumbaut 2004; Ramakrishnan 2004). According to an extensive body of research, contradictions and paradoxes characterise the schooling of immigrant-origin youths. Immigrant parents and their children are widely reported as holding positive attitudes towards education and high academic aspirations, despite various difficulties that immigrant-origin youths face within the educational system (Salikutluk 2016;Fernández-Reino2016; Tjaden and Hunkler 2017; Kao and Tienda 1998). In a similar vein, the educational aspirations of Finnish immigrant-origin youths are often academic (Kalalahti, Varjo, and Jahnukainen 2017; Kilpi-Jakonen 2011), despite their below-average school performance (Harju-Luukkainen et al. 2014), below-average education level and relatively high drop-out rates (Larja, Sutela, and Witting 2015). CONTACT Mira Kalalahti mira.kalalahti@helsinki.fiFaculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 9 FI00014, Finland This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article. JOURNAL OF EDUCATION AND WORK 2018, VOL. 31, NOS. 7–8, 563–578 https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2018.1549728 © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The paradoxical nature of immigrant schooling can be explored from several viewpoints. The attitude-achievement paradox point of view aims to explain why immigrant-origin youths underperform while maintaining positive attitudes towards education (Mickelson 1990, Jackson, Jonsson, and Rudolphi 2012). More significant for this article, however, is the aspiration-achievement paradox point of view, which aims to explore the explanations underlying the high educational aspirations of immigrant-origin youths (Salikutluk 2016,2013; Fernández-Reino 2016; Tjaden and Hunkler 2017). Common to explorations of the paradoxes of immigrant schooling is the twofold perception of educational aspirations or correspondingly, educational attitudes. Salikutluk (2016,2013) distinguishes between idealistic and realistic educational aspirations. Idealistic aspirations are free from practical constraints and reflect one’s general educational wishes. By contrast, realistic aspirations (sometimes referred to as educational expectations, see Fernández-Reino 2016), take practical restrictions into account (Salikutluk 2016,2013). Correspondingly, Kao and Tienda (1998) distinguish between two main views on the conceptualisation of educational aspirations. On one hand, educational aspirations are considered to reflect ‘a state of mind that motivates the youth to strive for academic success’.The youth’ssignificant others and social environment influence this cognitive state. On the other hand, educational aspirations are seen as ‘essentially rational assessments of the costs and benefits of possible actions’(Kao and Tienda 1998,351–352; see also Fernández-Reino 2016). While we reflect upon the different theoretical explanations of the aspiration paradox to some extent, our main aim is to elaborate on the overall understanding of the contradictions and possible paradoxes concerning immigrant youth’s educational aspirations. We use both quantitative and qualitative data to contrast the aspirations of immigrant and Finnish-origin youths, as well as to inspect the nuances of different aspirations and expectations. Utilising the concept of envisioned trajectories, we analyse the youths’own perceptions of the educational and occupational pathways ahead of them, and the abstract and tangible aspirations that these imagined trajectories reflect. Integrating a mixed methods approach of the aspirations of immigrant-origin youths offers insights for future analysis on why some immigrant-origin youths are able to attain their educational goals while for others, the expectations do not meet the educational reality. Envisioned trajectories as reflections of structural factors and subjective perceptions Aaltonen and Karvonen (2016) refer to certain ‘core transitions’in adolescent life that are built around education, work and relationships (see also Heinz 2009; Cieslik and Simpson 2013). Aaltonen and Karvonen (2016) note that the ideal of succeeding in these transitional areas is maintained not only by adult society, but also by most adolescents, while Malmberg (1996) points out that youths express the importance of the main life domains regardless of cultural or subcultural differences. The final year of comprehensive education is commonly understood as ‘one of the first transitional points at which young people’s future-oriented agency and imagination are called into play’(Aaltonen and Karvonen 2016). While aiming to grasp these conceivable journeys that immigrant youths might take towards adulthood, we use the concept of envisioned trajectories to analyse our data. We understand envisioned trajectories not only as sequences of transitions (e.g. educational choices and transition to work), but more like specific pathways (see Heinz 2009) to the future, seen as significant by the youths themselves. According to Dale and Parreira do Amaral (Dale and Do Amaral 2015), educational trajectories are entanglements of biographical and institutional dimensions of life. They are outcomes of neither solely individual rational choices nor institutional or societal policies and restrictions (Brannen and Nilsen 2002). Future trajectories are always envisaged in a certain context; ‘possible futures’become possible in the circumstances within which they are imagined (Aaltonen and Karvonen 2016; Brannen and Nilsen 2002; Behtoui 2016). 564 L. HOLMBERG ET AL. The envisioned trajectories of youth with immigrant origin According to Hegna (2014), young people’s educational aspirations reflect their subjective perceptions of personal capabilities and external opportunities, which are influenced by personal and societal characteristics, such as gender, race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Hence, educational aspirations are unsettled and are influenced by a variety of structural background characteristics and assessments of capabilities, opportunities, resources and barriers during adolescence (see also Brannen and Nilsen 2002). As for youths with immigrant origins, they reflect upon their opportunities with the surrounding society, construe an understanding of how they are treated as a minority and apply different educational strategies as a reaction (Ogbu and Simons 1998). Besides the cultural explanations, the variation in educational aspirations has to be understood in the context of national educational systems and institutional opportunity structures, such as the educational system, the occupational structure (especially youth unemployment), welfare regimes and housing markets (see Furlong and Cartmel 2007). As MacDonald has highlighted, the youth transitions of the 2010s are missing safe and straightforward opportunities for work, but instead offer social advancement through extended education (MacDonald 2011). Young people of immigrant origins are less often than average to be able to attach themselves to these safe slow-track high-educated transitions to adulthood. Salikutluk (2013) discusses several theoretical explanations for why youths with immigrant origins hold higher educational aspirations, while their educational performance is lower than that of their native counterparts and tests their significance empirically. While elaborating various conceivable explanations as immigrant optimism, information bias, blocked opportunities and social capital, Salikutluk (2013) discovered that in the case of Germany’s Turkish youth, all the explanatory models except information bias could be used to some extent to explain the paradox. Furthermore, Jackson, Jonsson, and Rudolphi (2012) (see also Kao and Tienda 1995; Salikutluk 2013) point out that variations between different ethnic groups, most significantly the remarkably wellperforming East Asian groups, somewhat invalidate the theory of information bias as an explanation of the aspiration-achievement paradox. Although educational transitions of immigrant-origin youths might have ethnicity-related boundaries that vary according to the country of origin, social classes, migration history, among other things, we have conducted our analysis for the immigrant-origin young people as a single group. We believe that it is theoretically relevant to interpret the future aspirations within the shared experiences of ‘otherness’, related to formal language skills, access to relevant information, norms and habits, as well as downplaying and discrimination. Immigrant-origin young people share a similar structural position in which they have to take a stance towards the ‘ordinariness’ (Souto 2011) and to construct their identities from the position of the ‘other’(Haikkola 2011; Kivijärvi 2014). Especially in Finland, where the labour markets and education system rely heavily on Finnish-language skills, belonging to Finnish society requires the Finnish language to be mastered. For the immigrant-origin youths, the non-Finnish customs and norms produce the position of being ‘other’—something other than Finnish (Toivanen 2013). Therefore, we consider that the young people of immigrant background in our study share the common need to negotiate their educational identities in relation to their Finnish-origin peers (see e.g. Kivijärvi 2014). Research design The Finnish immigrant-origin youths within the institutional opportunity structure After the non-tracking nine-year (compulsory) comprehensive system, Finnish post-comprehensive schooling is divided into two main streams: general (academic) and vocational upper-secondary school. It is also possible to combine these two streams to attain a dual qualification. It is evident that during the Finnish comprehensive education, the safety net works well: the standard deviation of learning outcomes between students is small, and only a small number of such early school JOURNAL OF EDUCATION AND WORK 565 leavers (0.5 per cent) leave without completing their (compulsory) comprehensive education (OSF 2015a). Nevertheless, the drop-out rates increase after the first transition and approximately seven per cent of the 18–24 age groups are early leavers from education and training (Larja, Sutela, and Witting 2015). Transition to upper-secondary education is a high-stakes situation, one in which immigrantorigin youths often lag behind native youths with their facilities and resources. Generally, the school performance of Finnish students is considered to be quite equal, but differences between immigrant-origin students and the majority population are larger than in other OECD countries and other Nordic countries (Harju-Luukkainen et al. 2014). Learning difficulties, and inadequate facilities and linguistic skills influence the successful transition to upper-secondary education (e.g. Jahnukainen 1999,2007; Kilpi-Jakonen 2011; Kivirauma and Jahnukainen 2001). The risk for youths with immigrant origins to be positioned outside the education and workforce is four to five times higher in comparison with Finnish-origin youths (Myrskylä 2011). They end up becoming early leavers from education and training more often than Finnish-origin youths do (Larja, Sutela, and Witting 2015). The socio-economic position of the family is linked to the educational attainment for immigrantand Finnish-origin youths in many similar ways (Hyvärinen and Erola 2011). Nevertheless, the influence of the social background is interwoven with various cultural, economic and physical distances of the Finnish-origin majority: the more distant the country of origin of the family is, the more likely it is for youths to drop out of school during uppersecondary education (Ansala, Hämäläinen, and Sarvimäki 2014). It should also to be noted that there might also be variations within the geographically and culturally distant ethnic minority groups. In Finland’s case these nuances are difficult to investigate statistically, since the different ethnic groups tend to be quite small. Research question and data In this research, we ask: what educational and career aspirations and expectations do immigrantorigin youths in Finland have? We answer our question by integrating research methods (see e.g. Bazeley 2018), analysing both quantitative (N= 445) and qualitative data (n= 112) and contrasting young people with immigrant origins to Finnish-origin youths. Although our mixed methods approach reaches a common theoretical goal analysing the consistency of tangible and abstract educational aspirations and expectations, our quantitative data offer the primary outcomes by analysing explanations and effects, whereas the qualitative analysis complements these explanations. Our data source was compiled as a selective sample (or homogenous purposive sampling, see e.g. Palinkas et al. 2015; Onwuegbuzie and Collins 2007) from eight municipal lower-secondary schools located in large cities in southern Finland. Sampling was designed to include young people with both immigrant and Finnish backgrounds. Since the population of immigrant origins in Finland is still quite small, including the younger-aged groups, the sampling was made selectively, targeting schools with higher proportions of immigrant-origin students. The selective sampling aimed to reach and engage equal numbers of schools and student with immigrant and Finnish origins, as well as different socio-economic positions (see e.g. Teddlie and Yu 2007). The socio-economic composition of the schools’neighbourhoods was both below and above the average. Five schools were located in neighbourhoods with an above-average proportion of highly educated people (classified by their postal code), and three schools were below the average on this measure (9 per cent) (OSF (Official Statistics of Finland) 2015b). The proportion of the immigrant-origin youths in the selective sample varied from 18 to 67 per cent, whereas the proportion of non-Finnish-speaking students among the selected schools varied from 10 to 59 per cent (OSF 2016). Among the municipals studied, the average of non-Finnish speaking students in municipal schools was between 11 and 16 per cent, compared with 5 per cent in all 566 L. HOLMBERG ET AL. Finnish schools. Therefore, the selected schools represent the socio-economically different urbanneighbourhoodschoolswithanabove-averagenumberofimmigrant-originstudents. Since the proportion of respondents was reasonable (67 per cent), we utilised statistical methods with significance tests. Nevertheless, we cannot generalise our outcomes to the whole9thgradepopulationandtheexternalvalidityofourstudyneedstobeevaluated within the mixed methods frame and in the context of transferability (see e.g. Palinkas et al. 2015, Onwuegbuzie and Collins 2007). The sample consists of 445 students. Of these, 284 (64 per cent, 148 girls and 136 boys) were Finnish-origin majority, that is, both parents and their offspring were born in Finland; 161 (36 per cent, 84 girls and 77 boys) were youths with immigrant origins, that is, in broad terms, youth born abroad, youths whose parents were born abroad or youths from mixed-origin or multicultural families. A majority (69 per cent) of the youths with immigrant origins were second generation; they were born in Finland, but one or both parents had been born abroad. The ages of migration of the first-generation youths varied quite evenly between the ages of 0 to 16, the mean age of migration being seven years old. The majority of the immigrant-origin youths, around 72 per cent, lived in a multilingual household. When asked whether Finnish was the only language spoken among their friends, 14 per cent of the first-generation youth and 33 per cent of the second-generation youth answered yes. For this article, we analysed the questionnaire data (N= 445) and thematic interviews (n= 112), executed during the final year of comprehensive school (9th grade, 2014–2015). The themes of the questionnaires and interviews included school experiences and orientations, educational aspirations, future orientations and family and peer relationships. All the young people who participated in the study answered the questionnaire before the joint application for upper-secondary education, but the final choices had not yet been made. From the survey sample, 112 students were selected for the thematic interviews. We chose equally students in terms of origin, gender and academic or vocational orientation (54 young people of Finnish origin and 58 youths with immigrant origins, 66 girls and 46 boys). Twenty-six youths were first-generation immigrants (born abroad): nine of them were born in Eastern Europe, two in Western Europe, seven in Asia, four in Africa and one in South America. Three students did not tell us where they were born. Of the interviewees, 32 were second-generation immigrants: there were 12 young people with African, 10 with Eastern-European, 9 with Asian and 1 with Oceanian roots. The interviews were conducted at schools during the school day by the researchers. They lasted from 30 to 60 min. Most of the interviews were held in Finnish and few in English. Most of the interviews were with individual students, but 20 of the interviews included groups of between two and four students, since some of the students preferred group interviews with their friends. The researchers asked some opening questions and the students were free to talk about their experiences without any tight structure. All participation were voluntary and from schools and the identity of the youths was fully anonymised for the analysis. Students could call offthe interview and their participation at any time. Concepts and methods The key concept that was operationalised and empirically analysed was a breakdown of envisioned trajectories (see Table 1). Quantitatively (N= 445) these were measured with two indicators, career and educational aspirations in adolescence and upper-secondary choice expectations. Career and educational aspirations consisted of two factors, compiled from a set of statements through which the respondents envisioned their lives as 21-year-olds (see also, Aaltonen and Karvonen 2016). The factors analysed here were academic aspirations (Cronbach’sα= 0.72; e.g. ‘I have completed my matriculation examination’) and vocational aspirations (α= 0.68; e.g. ‘I have a vocational qualification’). JOURNAL OF EDUCATION AND WORK 567 We analysed the distributions of the aspirations by origin and gender (χ 2 -test, t-test and analysis of variance) and analysed the schooling and family-background factors prevailing over the aspirations. For this purpose, we categorised the youths into two groups within each factor: (1) approximately 30 per cent of those who possessed the strongest academic and vocational aspirations and (2) others. We then analysed the probability of belonging to each highaspiration group (using logistic regression analysis). Since school experiences and study difficulties have long-lasting influences on students’self-esteem, self-perceptions and school engagement (e.g. Archambault et al. 2009), we utilised them as schooling-related factors. In the survey, school appreciation was measured with a single question (‘At the moment, do you like going to school?’), that has been widely used, by the World Health Organization (Currie et al. 2012). Study difficulties were examined through seven statements concerning different kindsofproblemssuchasdifficulties in following teaching in the class and performing tasks that require reading (see e.g. THL 2015). Being bullied or discriminated against were measured through two statements concerning whether the respondent agreed with the statement ‘Ihave been bullied or discriminated against at school or during leisure time’.Familybackground factors were origin and the parents’highest education level (typologised from open-ended questions concerning parents’education levels and occupations). Gender was also included in the analysis. We analysed these envisioned trajectories qualitatively (n= 112) with content analysis that focused on interpretation and classification of general career and educational aspirations in relation to upper-secondary choice expectations. First, we analysed youths’comments about their occupational aspirations and produced nine career aspiration categories by specific occupation (a nurse, a police officer, an electrical engineer) or a broader sector (healthcare and social services, education) and the qualifications required. To understand the strategies intertwined with the envisioned trajectories, we then analysed youths’talk about their upper-secondary choices and construed different combinations of upper-secondary choice expectations and career aspirations. We utilised the interpretation of these envisioned trajectories in relation to origin and gender and complemented the results with data from the quantitative analysis. Classifications and prevalence of career and educational aspirations Career and educational aspirations in adolescence was measured (questionnaire data) with two separate dimensions, academic and vocational aspirations, that were not exclusive. Therefore, all the youths possessed aspirations within both of these dimensions, to greater or lesser extent. Table 2 explores the mean differences of academic and vocational aspirations among youth with immigrant and Finnish origin. Career and educational aspirations were analysed (interview data) also in relation with uppersecondary choice (see Table 3). Table 1. Conceptualisations, data and themes/variables of envisioned trajectories. Conceptualisation Data Theme/variable General career and educational aspirations Interview data (thematic interviews) Career aspirations Career and educational aspirations in adolescence (age 21) Survey data (closed question) Academic aspirations Vocational aspirations Upper-secondary choice expectations Survey data (open-ended question) Expected choice (2–3 months prior to the choice) Interview data (thematic interviews) 568 L. HOLMBERG ET AL. Analysis Academic aspirations Academic aspirations were more prevalent among the youths (Table 2) than vocational aspirations. In other words, the youths envisioned themselves studying at university or at least having completed the academic (general) upper-secondary education by the age of 21 years, more often than having a vocational degree or being employed. The youths with an immigrant origin had academic aspirations more often than the Finnish-origin youth. Logistic regression analysis gives a more detailed interpretation of the prevailing academic aspirations (Table 4). Our first model introduces the factors that are statistically intertwined with the academic aspirations: apparently, a parent’s relatively low education level decreases the odds ratios for academic aspirations. The odds ratio for students from vocational or basic-educated families was 0.36 in comparison with the reference group, university-level education (value 1). For the second and third models, we analysed the odds ratios separately for immigrantand Finnishorigin youths. Although we cannot compare the odds ratios between the models, we can conclude that the correlation between the family’s education level and academic aspirations was more apparent among the Finnish youths, as was the correlation between academic aspirations and study difficulties. Within the group of Finnish youths, the absence of study difficulties, as well as having university-level educated parents, increases the odds ratios for academic aspirations. This dependence was not statistically significant among the immigrant-origin youths. Immigrant-origin girls had a higher odds ratios (1.7) for having strong academic aspirations, in comparison with immigrant-origin boys (1), but this difference was not statistically significant. The findings from the interview data (Table 3) support the image that is portrayed of youths with immigrant origins as young people with high professional aims. In particular, the girls with immigrant origins aimed for the academic professions and professional fields. Nevertheless, there were many academic aspirations. Not all youths have clear and focused aspirations of occupations requiring a high level of education, but rather the overall will to have university-level education. The youths had three categories of academic aspiration: a specific profession that requires Table 2. Analysis of variance of aspirations by gender and immigrant origin (questionnaire, N= 445). Finnish origin Immigrant origin Finnish-origin girl Finnish-origin boy Immigrant-origin girl Immigrant-origin boy Academic aspirations (mean) 3.03 3.20 3.12 2.94 3.29 3.10 F (1, 443 ) = 3.76, p= 0.05, η p2 = 0.01 F ( 3,441 ) = 2.76, p< 0.05, η p2 = 0.02 Vocational aspirations (mean) 2.82 2.92 2.87 2.77 2.91 2.93 F( 3,442 ) = 1.72, p> 0.05, η p2 = 0.01 F ( 1,444 ) = 3.04, p> 0.05, η p2 = 0.01 Table 3. Career and educational aspirations by upper-secondary choice (interview data, n= 112). Occupation based on Master’s degree Occupation based on Bachelor’s degree Occupation based on vocational degree No plans for education or employment Immigrant-origin boys General uppersecondary school 62 3 Immigrant-origin girls 13 3 Finnish-origin boys 6 3 5 Finnish-origin girls 10 6 1 5 Immigrant-origin boys Vocational uppersecondary school 762 Immigrant-origin girls 8 3 9 Finnish-origin boys 4 3 Finnish-origin girls 2 9 1 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION AND WORK 569 a university bachelor’s or master’s degree, a professional field that typically requires an advanced degree or an unidentified future profession after university study. A typical feature among youths with academic aspirations was that they saw no alternative to applying to general upper-secondary school. However, in their envisioned trajectories, uppersecondary school played several roles. General upper-secondary school was often seen as a place where one could identify and specify their as-yet vague occupational interests. In this interpretation, vocational school was seen as a quick route to a fixed profession, whereas general upper-secondary school was seen as ‘buying time’and figuring out the next step. One student commented: I don’t really know yet what I want to do, so it wouldn’t really make sense to go to vocational school. Some of my friends are going to a graphic designer thing [. . .] and then my other friend, she went to a business school or something like that [. . .] But for myself, I don’t know yet what I want to do and I think that, well, going to general upper-secondary school maybe could give me a more clear view of everything, like a better perspective. But I don’t really have anything that I’m really expecting, I’m just expecting to get a clearer view of what I want to be when I grow up, or something like that. (Interviewee #1, immigrant-origin girl) For those determinately striving for specific academic professions, general upper-secondary school seemed like an obvious choice. Nevertheless, these youths also perceived general upper-secondary school in various ways, as this interviewee demonstrates: I want to go to medical school after my general upper-secondary. I wish I would be able to take extra courses in mathematics, physics and chemistry, and so on. (Interviewee #2, immigrant-origin girl) For this respondent, general upper-secondary school held instrumental value, as it provided an opportunity to improve the skills required for her dream occupation. To proceed on their envisioned trajectories, the youths with academic career aspirations might try to ‘play it safe’with their school choice to ensure a place in any general upper-secondary school. I was just like, this school is good enough . . . All the general upper-secondary schools are basically the same in the end; you study the same stuff. I have no other options; I just need to get into general upper-secondary. (Interviewee #3, immigrant-origin girl) This aspiration reflects the equality of the educational system in Finland. The education system is commonly perceived as generally equal and of uniform quality. Although certain upper-secondary schools maintain higher ranking positions and have high-quality reputations, all upper-secondary schools follow the same national curriculum and provide equal access to tertiary education. The respondent, also aspiring to a medical degree, acknowledges the conventional educational route to university studies via general upper-secondary school. The parents’educational experiences in the country of origin can also be reflected in the youth’s speech as this young woman elaborates: Table 4. Academic aspirations by background factors, study difficulties and school appreciation (logistic regression analysis, odds ratios). All youth Immigrant-origin youth Finnish-origin youth pOR 95% C.I. pOR 95% C.I. pOR 95% C.I. Immigrant origin Ref. Finnish origin 0.06 0.54 0.29 1.03 Boy Ref. Ref. Ref. Girl 0.54 1.20 0.68 2.13 0.28 1.70 0.65 4.45 0.92 1.04 0.50 2.18 University level education (parents) Ref. Ref. Ref. Vocational or basic 0.00 0.36 0.19 0.68 0.13 0.45 0.16 1.28 0.01 0.32 0.13 0.80 Tertiary 0.02 0.39 0.18 0.88 0.22 0.36 0.07 1.83 0.05 0.39 0.15 1.00 Bullying and discrimination 0.87 0.92 0.34 2.51 0.67 0.73 0.17 3.20 0.70 1.33 0.31 5.68 Study difficulties 0.10 0.67 0.42 1.09 0.75 1.10 0.61 2.01 0.02 0.25 0.08 0.79 School appreciation 0.12 1.40 0.92 2.14 0.85 0.94 0.51 1.74 0.07 1.77 0.96 3.26 Nagelkerke R 2 0.14 0.06 0.24 570 L. HOLMBERG ET AL. Ansala, L. U. Hämäläinen, and M. Sarvimäki. 2014.Integroitumista Vai Eriytymistä? 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