That may be why the concern Thomas Morus's staff feels for its students seems tinged with a sense of estrangement.

ECONOMIST: Germany's Turkish minority

In one such school, Thomas Morus, only two or three of the 50 or so pupils who graduate each year find apprenticeships, the stepping-stone to employment for most young Germans.

ECONOMIST: Germany's Turkish minority

As a Hauptschule, Thomas Morus is in the lowest of the three orders of high school into which most German children are streamed, usually at ten but, in Berlin, at 12.

ECONOMIST: Germany's Turkish minority

Schools are supposed to even out the odds among children of different backgrounds, but by the time migrant children arrive at Thomas Morus, its director thinks, it is almost too late.

ECONOMIST: Germany's Turkish minority