Background: In French-language secondary schools in Quebec, among all immigrant-origin students, those originating from South Asia have the highest dropout rate. However, girls belonging to this group consistently outperform their male peers of similar ethnic background. This stirs questions about the reasons for this relative outperformance and its linkage with overall wellbeing among these girls. Methods: A mixed methods approach guided data collection. It involved in-depth interviews with female and male students of South Asian origin (n = 19) and with individuals holding educational roles in the lives of youth (n = 25). An additional anonymous questionnaire aggregated parent perspectives (n = 36), though this article focuses primarily on qualitative lessons. Results: This article shows three main reasons for why South Asian female adolescents in Quebec French-language secondary schools outperform their male counterparts in schooling attainment: parental expectations after migration, socialization at home, and relationships at school. According to our findings, academic perseverance among these girls does not necessarily translate into their improved wellbeing or their involvement in an advantageous process of acculturation. Conclusions: This study highlights that although gender, ethnicity, and class can create an interlocking system of oppression in certain social spheres for a specific group of women, it can emerge as advantageous in other contexts for the same group. This provides educational policy makers, as well as school and community workers, with guidance and avenues for action that can promote the wellbeing of immigrant-origin girls through involvement in beneficial processes of acculturation aligned with their improved academic performance. © 2016 The Author(s).

Structural violence class South Asian origin girls Gender race wellbeing Acculturation School success Quebec

information processing education Parents immigrant South Asian high school girl Quebec sex ratio Continental Population Groups human wellbeing Life Change Events ancestry group life event violence statistics and numerical data socialization qualitative research academic achievement interview Surveys and Questionnaires student Humans migrant psychology Adolescent worker male Emigrants and Immigrants parent female questionnaire cultural factor race clinical article gender Sex Distribution French (language) Cultural Characteristics expectation ethnicity social class Educational Measurement Students mental capacity Child