**1. Foreign background and newly arrived**

Approximately 25% of students in Swedish school system have foreign background. Some of them are born in Sweden and others have arrived during their school years. In the Swedish school organization, pupils are counted as newly arrived if they have arrived to Sweden at the start of school, during school in preschool, compulsory school, secondary school or special school or special schools, if they do not have Swedish as their native language, and if they do not command the Swedish language at all or insufficiently [1, 2].

In order to be admitted to a national program in the public secondary school, national requirements for eligibility must be fulfilled, meaning passing grades in many compulsory school subjects. An additional qualification requirement can be named age criterion, which involves commencing the public secondary school before the age of 20. Thereafter, students are referred to adult education or vocational training.
