The Children of Immigrants and Host-Society Educational Systems: Mexicans in the United States and North Africans in France

Abstract

Background/Context The educational fate of the children of low-wage immigrants is a salient issue in all the economically developed societies that have received major immigration flows since the 1950s. The article considers the way in which educational systems in the two countries structure the educational experiences and shape the opportunities of the children of immigrants. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This article examines the educational experiences of the children of Mexican immigrants in the United States and of North African immigrants in France. Both groups are low-wage labor migrants with low educational attainment relative to the native born. Research Design The article uses data from the U.S. Census and the 2003 Formation Qualification Professionelle Survey in France, as well as analysis of other research on the two countries, to compare educational processes and attainment for the two groups. Conclusions/Recommendations The comparison of the two systems shows that although the French and U.S. educational systems differ in many ways, the outcomes are in fact quite similar. In both systems, the children of low-wage labor migrants are tracked into the low streams of the educational hierarchy and have lower attainment than their native-born peers. At the same time, in both countries, a small percentage of children of immigrants do manage to succeed. The authors conclude that despite apparent differences between the two systems, residential segregation and educational tracking produce these similar outcomes, which also reflect the determination of native-born middle-class parents to preserve their privileged status and to thwart efforts to make the educational system more open.