How refugees are integrated into Brazilian schools: evidence from Venezuelans in Boa Vista, RR

This paper studies how the Venezuelan refugee flow after 2017 affected locals' educational outcomes in Boa Vista (a state capital in Northern Brazil). The refugee students' flow could have pressured school infrastructure and triggered peer effects that potentially affected Brazilians' learning process. We constructed a panel of schools (2010 to 2020) and a student cross-section (2019) from the publicly available data. First, we found that Venezuelan refugee students were assigned to schools closer to refugee shelters and with lower student-per-teacher ratios before the migration flow started. However, refugee school allocation was not based on other measures of school quality, such as exam performance. Moreover, Venezuelans were disproportionately allocated to the first grade and were consistently older than the expected age for a student in the grade they were assigned. Schools that received most Venezuelans observed a decrease in the number of Brazilians enrolled after Venezuelans arrived. It likely explains the null effect of the refugee flow over the number of students per classroom and teacher in refugee-host schools. Finally, comparing students within the same school grade but in different classes with different levels of exposure to Venezuelans, there are no consistent statistical differences other than zero Venezuelan peer effects on Brazilians' Math and Portuguese exam performances.