Assessing the Role of Pre-School Program Design in the Successful Integration of Immigrant Children in Greece

Success in integrating the children of immigrants the second generation is of enormous consequence for economically advanced societies that have received millions of international migrants since the 1980s. Education systems play a crucial role in this process. Availability and access of culturally diverse and appropriate preschool education are important factors for supporting long-term integration of immigrant children in host societies. In most industrialized countries, preschool programs are aimed at low-income and minority groups, offering education to hone the cognitive, language, literacy, and numeric skills of preschoolers, thus giving them a strong start upon entering elementary school. While, the evaluation of such programs indicate that entry into such programs is an avenue to improve the integration of immigrant children, research indicates that the design of these programs is imperative to their success. Finally, although well-designed early education programs aim to reduce ethnic group-related inequalities in children’s cognitive skills and social competence, children in immigrant families are less likely to participate in these programs than are children in native-born families. This paper will