This paper presents new findings from quantitative and qualitative fieldwork in urban locations in the North of England. This study forms part of a three-year EU FP7 research project entitled ‘Ethnic differences in education and diverging prospects for urban youth in an enlarged Europe’ (EDUMIGROM). The project aims to conduct a comparative investigation in ethnically diverse communities with second-generation migrants and Roma in nine countries of the European Union. Th is paper presents findings from the UK team and gives an analytical account of a quantitative survey of Year 10 (14–15 year old) pupils in three multicultural secondary schools in 2008–2009, and qualitiative fieldwork focussed on African Caribbean, Pakistani and Gypsy and Traveller children, parents and families carried out in 2009–2010. The African Caribbean population tends to be economically disadvantaged and socially assimilated, in terms of cohabitation and marriage patterns, and with some significant degree of political incorporation; the Pakistani population tends to be in a position of greater economic marginality and poverty, with more social distinctiveness, due partly to social closure, and less political incorporation. But the group with the longest history of residence in the UK, the Gypsy and Traveller population, is in the most vulnerable position in terms of economic, political and social marginality. The extent to which wider patterns of socio-economic inequality play out in educational stratification and outcomes across these three groups is examined in this paper and emerging themes from current fieldwork are presented. This paper also addresses the policy implications of these research findings.