Positive Ethnic Choice Effects are Persistent Over Time but not Across Minority Generations: Evidence from Switzerland

Abstract

Many empirical studies have demonstrated positive ethnic choice effects at the transition to upper secondary education. This means that ethnic minority students—given the same academic performance, parental resources and type of school at lower secondary level—aspire to more demanding educational programs than ethnic majority students. Previous research has often examined only single cohorts of school-leavers and has rarely considered differences between ethnic minority generations. Therefore, little is known about the extent to which these positive ethnic choice effects vary over time and across minority generations. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap using large-scale survey data from Switzerland (2000–2016; N = 100,495). Using multilevel analyses, I am able to show that positive ethnic choice effects are persistent over time in Switzerland. Furthermore, it becomes clear that positive ethnic choice effects vary across ethnic minority generations, with these effects decreasing with each succeeding minority generation. Ethnic minority students with one parent born in Switzerland hardly differ from ethnic majority students in their educational decisions.