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

Abstract

This article extends our understanding of the difference in university participation between students with and without immigrant backgrounds by contrasting outcomes in Switzerland and Canada and by the use of new longitudinal data that are comparable between the countries. The research includes family socio-demographic characteristics, family aspirations regarding university education, and the student's secondary school performance as explanatory variables of university attendance patterns. In Switzerland, compared with students with Swiss-born parents, those with immigrant backgrounds are disadvantaged regarding university participation, primarily due to poor academic performance in secondary school. In comparison, students with immigrant backgrounds in Canada display a significant advantage regarding university attendance, even among some who performed poorly in secondary school. The included explanatory variables can only partly account for this advantage, but family aspirations regarding university attendance play a significant role, while traditional variables such as parental educational attainment are less important. In both countries, source region background is important. Possible reasons for the cross-country differences are discussed.

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

“…For example, based on his review of the evidence, Modood (2004) suggests that what drives the educational success of the British South Asian and Chinese communities is that parents are able to get their children to internalize high educational ambitions and to enforce appropriate behaviour, despite their relatively disadvantaged status in British society. Picot and Hou (2013) find that parental and student aspirations Bexplain^a large share of the positive university attendance gap between various generations of immigrants and students with two Canadian-born parents. They note that immigrants display a significant advantage in university attendance, even among some who performed poorly at secondary school.…”

TREE (Transitions from Education to Employment): A Swiss multi-cohort survey

“…It also allows for cross-national comparative studies with datasets of other countries that have done the same (for examples of comparative analyses, see Picot & Hou, 2013;Murdoch et al 2016). …”

“…In addition, international comparative research could be further developed to study the impact of economic, institutional or social policy as well as other contexts on individual life courses (see, e.g. Buchmann, Kriesi, Koomen, Imdorf & Basler, 2016;Imdorf, Helbling & Inui, forthcoming;Imdorf & Hupka-Brunner, 2015;Kamanzi, Guégnard, Imdorf, Koomen & Murdoch, 2014;Murdoch, Guégnard, Griga, Koomen & Imdorf, 2016;Murdoch et al, 2017;Picot & Hou, 2013). To date, around 270 researchers and students from national and international institutions across a multitude of disciplines have been working with the TREE1 data.…”

Higher Education in Switzerland: Predictors of Becoming Engaged in Higher Vocational or Higher Academic Education – The Role of Workplace Factors

“…It has been found that it is harder for individuals with migrant backgrounds to access higher education. A significant effect of migration status is found in the transition to upper-secondary education (Hupka-Brunner, Sacchi, & Stalder, 2010;Wolter & Zumbuehl, 2017) and in the transition to tertiary education (Picot & Hou, 2013).…”