Across EU and OECD countries, the share of immigrants has grown by 30 percent since 2000, but not enough is being done to harness their potential, according to a new study commissioned by the EU and the OECD.

Discrimination among those who were born in an EU or OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) country but who have foreign parents is "felt more keenly" than among Germans with German parents and even among their immigrant parents, the study claims.

"Countries are not making enough progress helping immigrants and their children integrate," OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria said, adding that the study should be a "wake-up call" for countries to step up to the plate and help people integrate, to "get the most out of migration."

The study reveals that while the level of education has improved for many children from immigrant families across the EU, they are only half as likely to perform at the highest level of PISA tests than their native-born counterparts, even if both are from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Germany needs to do more

In Germany, a mere one in six of those with foreign-born parents has a university degree or a top-level vocational qualification that would enable him or her to set up a business. The numbers are below the EU and OECD averages, and crucially, below those who have immigrated themselves.

Even if those aged between 15 and 34 with foreign-born parents manage to get a high-level qualification, they are twice as likely to be unemployed than their native-born counterparts. Across all OECD countries, that discrepancy only amounts to 2 percent.

In Germany, those born to foreign parents and with a university education also have harder time finding a job, their level of employment is 7 percent lower than that of highly skilled Germans born to German parents.

Given that more immigrants and their children across the EU and OECD countries are highly skilled these days, it is particularly problematic that they are often stuck in jobs they are overqualified for. In fact, across the EU, 42 percent of highly educated immigrants with foreign degrees have jobs that would normally require a lower level of qualification.

Germany is particularly behind in employing people with an immigrant background in the public sector, which in other EU countries, is a strong "motor for integration," the study says.

On the plus side, more children with immigrant backgrounds are doing better at school now than in 2003. Every other immigrant family also speaks German at home, thus facilitating integration. The number is much higher than the comparable families speaking English in the US or Canada.

The OECD/EU study is the "first detailed international comparison of the outcomes of immigrants and their children in all EU and OECD countries," according to an OECD statement.

It comes three weeks after a similar report spoke of Germany's "slow but steady" progress" with regard to the integration of immigrants.

The OECD is a Paris-based global policy forum with 34 mostly western members, whose aim is to further economic and socio-economic cooperation as well as global trade.