Does Selective Migration Matter? Explaining Ethnic Disparities in Educational Attainment among Immigrants' Children

Abstract

Understanding why some national‐origin groups excel in school while others do not is an enduring sociological puzzle. This paper examines whether the degree of immigrants’educational selectivity ‐ that is, how immigrants differ educationally from non‐migrants in the home country ‐ influences educational outcomes among groups of immigrants’children. This study uses published international data and U. S. Census and Current Population Survey data on 32 immigrant groups to show that as immigrants’educational selectivity increases, the college attainment of the second generation also increases. Moreover, the more positive selection of Asian immigrants helps explain their second generations’higher college attendance rates as compared to Europeans, Afro‐Caribbeans, and Latinos. Thus, the findings suggest that inequalities in relative pre‐migration educational attainments among immigrants are often reproduced among the next generation in the United States.

A comparative study on the health and well-being of adolescent immigrants in Spain and Portugal

“…Moreover, the mothers' level of education, usually considered as an indicator of the social status of origin, was significantly associated with mood and psychological well-being. This result does support previous literature (Feliciano, 2005;Sabatier, 2008). More specifically, the educational level of the parents and family wealth (material factors such as computers, leisure, books, etc.)…”

“…However, in our study with immigrant youth, no significant differences were found regarding the perception of health and well-being, except in what concerns Physical Well--being, which was reported significantly higher in boys. This finding is particularly important if we consider that, according to Neto (2001;2005), the adolescent's gender seems to be a predictor of life satisfaction and psychological adjustment in young immigrants. Moreover, the mothers' level of education, usually considered as an indicator of the social status of origin, was significantly associated with mood and psychological well-being.…”

“…Nevertheless, there is substantial variety of resources and needs among immigrants from different countries and on the social status of origin. The individual and family characteristics, purposes for immigrating, and the social context that families encounter when they arrive, play an important part in the origin of these differences (Feliciano, 2005;Hernandez et al, 2009;Sabatier, 2008).…”

Foreign Students, Immigrants, Domestic Minorities and Admission to Texas' Selective Flagship Universities Before and After the Ban on Affirmative Action

“…Though ethnically heterogeneous groups, for this study"s purposes, the aggregation of blacks and Hispanics is substantively supported by other studies finding black and Hispanic first and second generation immigrants to be a less-positively selected group than first and second generation Asian immigrants (C. Feliciano, 2005b;C. Feliciano, 2005c).…”

Aspiration Squeeze: The Struggle of Children to Positively Selected Immigrants

“…Following the studies of Feliciano (2005bFeliciano ( , 2006 and Ichou (2014), this part of the analysis seeks to explain differences within the population children of immigrants, rather than vis-à-vis the majority (cf. Harris, Jamison, and Trujillo 2008;Levels, Dronkers, and Kraaykamp 2008).…”