Mexican Ancestry, Immigrant Generation, and Educational Attainment in the United States

Abstract

After introducing alternative perspectives on assimilation and acculturation, we use the 2002-2012 waves of the Education Longitudinal Study to model differences in educational attainment for students sampled as high school sophomores in 2002. We focus on patterns observed for the growing Mexican immigrant population, analyzing separately the trajectories of 1 st , 1.5 th , 2 nd , and 3 rd + generation Mexican immigrant students, in comparison to 3 rd + generation students who self-identify as non-Hispanic whites and students who self-identify as non-Hispanic blacks or African Americans. The results suggest that the dissonant acculturation mechanism associated with the segmented assimilation perspective is mostly unhelpful for explaining patterns of educational attainment, especially for the crucial groups of 1.5 th and 2 nd generation Mexican immigrant students. Instead, standard measures of family background can account for large portions of group differences in bachelor's degree attainment, with or without additional adjustments for behavioral commitment to schooling, occupational plans, and educational expectations. The broad structure of inequality in the United States, as well as the rising costs of bachelor's degrees, should be the primary source of concern when considering the prospects for the incorporation of the children of recent Mexican immigrants into the mainstream.

Variation Across Hispanic Immigrant Generations in Parent Social Capital, College-Aligned Actions, and Four-Year College Enrollment

“…Not unrelated, application for financial aid was positively associated with four-year enrollment across immigrant generation status groups, and this relationship appeared especially strong among first- and second-generation Hispanic youth. This finding is consistent with recent research on Mexican-origin youth indicating that surmounting the rising cost of a bachelor’s degree is particularly critical but often especially challenging for the children of immigrants (Morgan & Gelbgiser, 2014).…”

“…Transitions to college among Hispanic youth are related to a number of important student demographic characteristics. With regard to ethnicity and country of origin, scholars who have studied intra-ethnic differences within the Hispanic population according to national origin have generally concluded that Mexican American students face especially steep barriers when it comes to college enrollment and completion (Morgan & Gelbgiser, 2014). Gender may also factor in the college enrollment behaviors of Hispanic students.…”

No place like home? Familism and Latino/a–white differences in college pathways

“…Proponents of segmented assimilation theory argue that immigrants' assimilation pathways diverge due to the influence of local context and differences in the strength of ethnic ties, in some cases leading to a ''second-generation decline'' among Latino/a and Asian immigrant groups (Portes and Hao, 2004;Zhou and Bankston, 1998). More recently, Morgan and Gelbgiser (2014) compare the college trajectories of 1st, 1.5, 2nd, and 3rd+ Mexican immigrants. Their findings indicate that immigrant generation associations with college trajectories are mostly explained by socioeconomic status differences.…”

Planning for the American Dream: The College-Savings Behavior of Asian and Latino Foreign-Born Parents in the United States

“…The large and fast-growing population of children of immigrants in the U.S. is coming of age in an era of soaring college costs and at a time when a college education is more necessary than ever for employment. Their ability to cover these costs will largely determine their access to middle-class jobs and, ultimately, their incorporation into American society (Morgan and Gelbgiser 2014). Thus, it is imperative to understand immigrant families' financial preparation for college.…”

“…Data limitations notwithstanding, our results have important research and policy implications for the socioeconomic prospects of children of immigrants in the U.S. Because parents' college savings efforts positively predict postsecondary educational outcomes Charles et al 2007;Elliott and Beverly 2011;Steelman and Powell 1989), immigrant-native differences in parents' college savings behaviors may elucidate disparities in educational attainment between children of immigrants and children of natives and inform scholarly debates about the incorporation of contemporary children of immigrants. Indeed, another recent study (Morgan and Gelbgiser 2014) concluded that family resource constraints, coupled with the increasing costs of higher education, explain the differences in bachelor's degree attainment for Mexican children of immigrants relative to Mexican, black, and white third-generation students. They caution that rising costs of higher education will lead to blocked mobility for this group.…”