Why Do So Many Children of Immigrants Attend University? Evidence for Canada

Abstract

The children of Canadian immigrants from some source regions, Asia, Africa and China in particular, attend university at extraordinarily high rates. Most others participate at lower rates, but still compare favourably with nonimmigrant Canadians. In this paper, the Youth in Transition Survey is used to analyse the role of various background factors on these outcomes, including parental education, family income, parental expectations, high school grades and PISA test scores. To some degree, the children of immigrants go to a university because they have higher levels of the background attributes associated with university attendance, parental education in particular. But by allowing these effects to vary by immigrant group, this research finds that the high immigrant university participation rates are largely driven by those possessing Bunfavourable^characteristics (low levels of parental education in particular) attending university in spite of these apparent disadvantages.

Why Immigrant Background Matters for University Participation: A Comparison of Switzerland and Canada

“…These results fit with earlier research by Foley, Gallipoli, and Green () and Childs, Finnie, and Mueller () for Canada. Both papers find that when parental aspirations are included, the effects of parental education and ethnic background on educational outcomes are reduced, and in the case of Foley et al ., the effect of parental education is completely eliminated…”

“…Earlier research suggests that the effect of parental education on university attendance may differ between the second and 3rd‐and‐higher generations. In Canada, the correlation between parents' education and the students' educational attainment is observed to be weaker among immigrant families than among domestic‐born families (Bonikowska, ; Childs, Finnie, and Mueller, ). Similar results are found in Switzerland (Bauer and Riphahn, ).…”

“…More recent Canadian research uses YITS data to address issues related to post‐secondary participation among students with and without immigrant backgrounds (Childs, Finnie, and Mueller, ). They find that parental aspirations regarding university education are higher among children with immigrant backgrounds, particularly among immigrant families from source regions such as China, India, other Asian countries, and Africa.…”

Ethnicity and Effectively Maintained Inequality in BC Universities

“…The effects of this variable were expected to be mediated by the relationship between students' RIU attendance and their GPAs but previous research suggested language proficiency would also complement curricular achievement (Childs et al. ). The results indicate English language proficiency does play a significant role in predicting RIU attendance, independent of GPA scores (odds ratio of 1.02).…”

“…). Although one might assume such language skills are incorporated in GPA measures, Childs, Finnie, and Mueller () found that PISA language scores had an effect independent of GPA in predicting students’ PSE participation. By extension, English language proficiency may be important in predicting admission to selective university programs.…”