Absences, in terms of lacks, are identified by researchers as explaining factors of failure in inclusive education, for example, the absence of minority ethnic students' native language from instruction. However, there is a lack of a clear framework against which to discuss issues of absence in the education of poor minority ethnic students. In this paper, I draw on the notion of "laminated systems" from Roy Bhaskar's critical realism philosophy, in order to provide a conceptual theoretical tool for identifying and addressing absences in the education of poor minority ethnic students in a more structured and conscious way. This is done by drawing on qualitative empirical data, collected from a school with a high concentration of poor minority ethnic students in Cyprus, as part of a PhD thesis. Findings illustrate that "absence(s) are interrelated and emergent features which occur in" different levels of reality. Absences need to be identified and decided a posteriori for each case, whereas mono-dimensional, non-specific or "one-size-fits-it-all" strategic actions should be avoided.