This paper analyses the school pathways of immigrants’ children and their native classmates in lower secondary education. It covers variables such as the place of birth and nationality of the children and their parents, the parents’ social class and schooling, academic experience and aspirations and expectations in school. The results indicate that national origin, after controlling the effect of the socio-demographic variables, has little impact on the students’ school pathways and that the parents’ academic qualifications and the students’ sex are more relevant