Refugee migration has been a major source of immigration to Sweden since the 1980s. This experience stands in contrast to that of many other countries in the OECD. As a result, the share of refugee pupils in school is relatively large in Sweden. Due to the historically small refugee populations in other countries and a lack of data that permits researchers to separate refugees from other types of immigrants little is known about the performance of refugee children in school. This paper documents the compulsory school achievements among refugee pupils since the late 1990s and finds that refugees on average perform significantly worse than other students. Controlling for parental socioeconomic background, however, substantially reduces the differences in school performance between refugees and other students. While school sorting only explains a small (albeit non-trivial) part of the gap, neighborhood of residence account for a considerable portion of the divide. In fact, controlling for parental background and neighborhood effects simultaneously almost eliminates the gap. While we cannot rule out the possibility that our results might be contaminated by unobserved factors, the results are consistent with the notion that improving the general socioeconomic situation of refugees should be of major importance in improving the school achievements of refugee students.