This paper examines the experiences and aspirations of migrant young people in Scotland. It focuses on students approaching the end of compulsory education and presents findings from a study on the outcomes of young migrants in the transition to adulthood. The research is based on empirical fieldwork carried out with students in two schools (n = 95 in depth interviews). It finds evidence of unique and distinct educational pathways for school leavers with a migrant background. Three themes emerge about the practice of transition for young migrants, (1) the significance of family support and expectations, (2) the impact of the migration process and (3) the changing nature of migrant identity through transition. The study highlights the need for local and national policies which support transition for young migrants.

This article brings cultural sociology, civil sphere theory, and critical theory into dialogue to examine the empirical-cum-political stakes of education in multicultural societies. Using a mixed-methods approach, it analyzes school cultures in Finland, Scotland, and Sweden, focusing on how the symbolic and interactional life of schools extends beyond academic performance. Schools are understood as moral environments where ideals of solidarity and coexistence, and thus processes of inclusion, are both cultivated and contested, revealing the potential and fragility of a lived civil sphere. The article introduces the concept of critical pedagogy of multicultural incorporation (CPMI), which includes interactional rituals of recognition, awareness of structural barriers, decolonizing practices, and meaningful representation. Magnolia School in Sweden serves as a key case, showing how a “thick” school culture grounded in CPMI supports prosocial outcomes for students with immigrant backgrounds in a society where non-whiteness, non-Western origins, and Muslim identity are increasingly stigmatized. In contrast, other schools in the study demonstrate thinner or more rhetorical approaches to diversity. The results show how young people across Europe encounter school cultures that vary in relation to their mode of incorporation, and are thus equipped with different tools for learning about collective life and how to imagine solidarity.