Educational Pathway and Social Mobility in Children of Immigrants

Michael Dunn

doi:10.5539/ies.v12n12p44

Abstract

This paper looks at degree completion and wages of immigrants to understand the extent to which a student’s chosen educational pathway limits his or her social mobility. Statistical modeling established the predictive strengths of key variables on educational pathway and statistical analysis is used to understand the relationship between educational pathway, degree completion, and wages. Findings show that educational pathway mediates many of the background determinants that previous research identified as key mechanisms for immigrant social mobility. Furthermore, findings also identify a significant “pathway wage penalty” despite degree completion. New immigration plus births to immigrants added more than 22 million people to the U.S. population in the last decade, equal to 80 percent of total population growth. Immigrants and their children now account for more than one in five public school students. The impact of immigrants and their children on the US population, and the education system, underscores the importance of research examining the immigrant experience.

Highlights

It is well documented that educational attainment can have a significant impact on social mobility (Haveman & Smeeding, 2006; Torche, 2011; Breen, 2019)
Studies have shown that children of immigrant tend to outperform their native-born peers despite disadvantaged backgrounds (Tran, 2018; see historical review by Buriel, 2012) This paper demonstrates that educational pathway, the initial point of entry into the higher education system, when considered, mediates many of the background determinants that previous studies have identifies as key mechanisms for social mobility
Findings from this research show that educational pathway mediates many of the background determinants that the migration literature identifies as key mechanisms for social mobility

Summary

Introduction

It is well documented that educational attainment can have a significant impact on social mobility (Haveman & Smeeding, 2006; Torche, 2011; Breen, 2019). Portes and Rumbaut (2001) examined human capital, family structure, and modes of incorporation as key background determinants for generational paths of mobility They argued that background determinants, together with socio-economic status and strength of co-ethnic community, differentiated mobility pathways for future generations. Portes, Fernández-Kelly, and Haller (2005) expanded on the background determinants introduced by Portes and Rumbaut (2001) The former looked at how education and job skills (human capital), two-parent household status, parental legal status, parental expectations and investment priorities (family situation), and different modes of incorporation influenced the social mobility of second-generation immigrants and found that those from advantaged backgrounds had higher social mobility. Education is treated as a homogenous factor through which background determinants operate to create class reproduction, rather than as a pathway that predicts or drives educational outcomes or social mobility in its own right. Feliciano and Lanuza (2017) recently reaffirmed the idea that class reproduction is key in determining social mobility by arguing that “contextual attainment” explains much of the immigrant advantage, and that children of immigrants are not experiencing the remarkable intergenerational mobility that scholars suggest (Farley & Alba, 2002; Lee & Zhou, 2013). Feliciano and Lanuza (2017) looked at parental years of schooling (and SES) but their models did not incorporate educational pathway

Results

Discussion

Conclusion