Achievement of Two Cohorts of Immigrants: Cognitive Mapping Changes and the Country of Origin as Moderator

This study compares the achievement of two cohorts of immigrants with ages between 7 and 30 years old. Two sets of participants were assessed in two points in time and in different regions of Portugal. 169 students with similar immigration conditions for this analysis (nationality, length of residence, previous education in the country of origin) were examined in two trials of language and cognitive tasks, through two periods (period 1: 2002-2007; period 2: 2013-2017). These two periods and cohorts were result from two randomized studies, approved in different regions and submitted to ethical board in different times. Regarding age: participants presented a mean age of 14 years (M = 13.8; SD = 4.7); and concerning the nationality. The two cohorts are from the Centre and the South of the country being 61 participants in the first cohort (arrived in the period of 2002-2007) and 108 were the second cohort.The main objective is to ascertain if age and/or nationality characteristics became moderators of significant changes in Second Language achievement considering the two periods of study. The variety of nationalities in the two periods and cohorts are direct implications from the changing of immigrant routes. Then, affecting also the cognitive and linguistic changes over time.Results revealed that the two groups diverge significantly in verbal reasoning and other discrimination tasks explained by the nationality and not by age. These findings shed light on the impact of new routes of immigration for the linguistic and school development of children.