Educational attainment across generations: The role of immigration background

This paper analyses educational attainment among immigrant and native‐born youth in Australia. We find that young Australians from non‐English‐speaking‐background (NESB) immigrant families have an educational advantage over their English‐speaking‐background (ESB) immigrant and Australian‐born peers....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Economic record 2012-12, Vol.88 (283), p.554-575
Main Authors: Cobb-Clark, Deborah A, Nguyen Trong Ha, Deborah A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Australia
Australien
Bildungschance
Children
Educational attainment
Educational opportunities
Fremdsprache
I20
Immigrant students
Immigrants
Immigration
J11
J13
Level of education
Migrant
Noncitizens
Parents
Socioeconomic factors
Studies
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Summary:This paper analyses educational attainment among immigrant and native‐born youth in Australia. We find that young Australians from non‐English‐speaking‐background (NESB) immigrant families have an educational advantage over their English‐speaking‐background (ESB) immigrant and Australian‐born peers. The educational advantages associated with immigrant parents’ higher educational attainment are counterbalanced by the disadvantages associated with immigrant families’ greater socioeconomic disadvantage, making endowment effects overall relatively unimportant in explaining the gap. Instead, most of the educational gap associated with immigration background stems from differences in the educational attainment of immigrant and native‐born youths with the same characteristics. While immigrant parents do not have an enhanced ability to transmit their own educational advantage to their children, they are more effective in shielding their children from some of the negative educational consequences of socioeconomic disadvantage. Finally, immigrant youths’ residential patterns convey substantial educational advantages to them.
ISSN:1475-4932
0013-0249
1475-4932
DOI:10.1111/1475-4932.12001