This article uses international comparisons to examine the ways in which national differences in educational philosophies and policies have affected trajectories through education for immigrant and second generation students and their succeeding socio-economic, civic and political integration. By looking at various settings such as classrooms, immigration policies and state education programmes, it examines how education systems have responded to the changing demographics of their transnational student population and how contemporary forms of mobility are shape-shifting conditions of inclusion and exclusion in education. (Contains 2 notes.)