Ethnic Differences in Intergenerational Education Mobility: French Evidence

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the ethnic effect on the intergenerational educational mobility in France. We show that second generation immigrants are more likely to attain high level of education than the French natives when their parents hold low or intermediate levels of education, and less likely if the parents are well educated. French of Maghrebian origin are however less mobile than Maghrebian immigrants. Nevertheless, second generation immigrants substantially improve their education with reference to first generation, but this tendency remains very unequal among the different ethnic groups. Two effects are overlapped: a generational effect linked to parental education and another effect purely ethnic. Therefore, even if second generation immigrants is more likely to attain tertiary education, the influence of family background still important, especially for lower levels of education.