Planning for the American Dream: The College-Savings Behavior of Asian and Latino Foreign-Born Parents in the United States

Abstract

Rapid growth in the population of children of immigrants has occurred during an era of soaring college costs in the United States. Despite well-established knowledge that immigrant parents hold high educational expectations for their children and that children of immigrants will make up a large share of the U.S. college-aged population, little is known about how immigrant families prepare financially for their children’s postsecondary education. We use data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 to examine the patterns and predictors of college savings behavior among Asian and Latino foreign-born parents of high school students in the United States. Relative to white U.S.-born parents, Asian immigrant parents have higher odds of saving and have more money saved for their 10th-grader’s college education. In contrast, Latino immigrant parents are less likely than white U.S.-born parents to save for their children’s college education. However, among parents who save, Latino immigrant parents do not differ from white U.S.-born parents in the amount saved. For both Asian and Latino immigrant parents, income is less predictive of saving than it is for white U.S.-born parents, and the odds of saving increase with U.S. experience. Findings improve understanding of college access and the long-term socioeconomic prospects of children of immigrants in the U.S.