Immigrants' demand for informal and formal education: evidence from US time use data

Abstract

This paper contributes to the migration literature studying the time devoted to educational activities. It uses US time-diary surveys to study the allocation of time to informal as well as formal learning and educational activities by immigrants and natives. We develop a simple theoretical framework, which highlights the different constraints/opportunity costs faced by immigrants as compared with natives. Consistently with our theoretical model, the estimates show that immigrants are more likely to engage in informal and formal education and conditional on participation, they allocate more time to these activities. We find that the main drivers are economic incentives, mostly in the early phase of working life, and that the differences between natives and immigrants persist across generations. We also find that differences between immigrants and natives are generally larger in informal education than in formal education. The investment in informal and formal learning and educational activities is likely to boost immigrants' human and social capital and contribute to their socio-economic integration.

Crossing Boundaries and Time: An Exploration of Time Allocation and Emotional Well-Being of Immigrants in the United States *

“…Furthermore, results in column 4 and column 5 suggest that immigrants experience lower levels of stress than natives during weekdays, but they exhibit higher stress levels and lower happiness during weekends and holidays (as shown in Table 2). These differences in daily stress do not appear to be influenced by the length of 8 The coefficient becomes smaller and is statistically significant only at 10 % time immigrants have spent in the US. Regarding the other covariates (column 1), we find that married individuals and women experience less stressful days.…”

Language lesson learned—foreign-origin teachers and their effect on students’ language skills

“…Lastly, the paper builds upon the literature showing that immigrants and natives differ in terms of hours worked (Hamermesh and Trejo 2013;Vargas 2016;Fertig 2010). Studies by Hamermesh and Trejo (2013) and Coniglio et al (2021) show that foreign-born individuals invest more time in educational activities.…”