| Gabriella Gonzalez
Harvard University
Family background, ethnicity, and immigration status: A longitudinal analysis of school success for immigrant and native-born students
FINAL REPORT: The role of family background and population density in immigrant communities on children's performance in mathematics and reading.
This paper fills the gaps in previous status attainment research of immigrants by examining how immigrant parents' differential experiences in the labor markets of their country of origin and in the United States affect their children's schooling experiences. Using data from the base year of the National Education Longitudinal Study, I explore whether refining the concept of socio-economic status to take into account a family's status prior to immigration will bring results comparable to the traditional status attainment model. I ask which factor is more important for students: the family's status before arriving in the United States or after arriving? I also investigate the effects of the density of the community in which the family lives on academic achievement - a factor that could help to mediate the translation of a pre-arrival education and occupation into a post-arrival occupation and income. I find that the education of immigrant fathers has the greatest positive effect on their children's mathematics test score, net of all other social status variables. Additionally, the length of time a mother has been in the United States is the greatest determinant of how well the children in an immigrant family will do on the reading test. These results can help us understand more clearly the relationship between the social status of immigrant families before arriving to the United States and the social status upon arrival.
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