Immigration Background and the Intergenerational Correlation in Education

Deborah Cobb-Clark and Ha Nguyen

Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series from Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne

Abstract: This paper analyzes the degree of intergenerational education mobility among immigrant and native-born youth in Australia. We find that young Australians from non-English-speaking background (NESB) immigrant families have an educational advantage over their English speaking background (ESB) immigrant and Australian-born peers. Moreover, while highlyeducated Australian-born mothers and fathers transfer separate and roughly equal educational advantages to their children, outcomes for ESB (NESB) youth are most closely linked to the educational attainment of their fathers (mothers). On balance, intergenerational mobility in families with two highly-educated parents appears to be much the same for Australian-born and ESB families and is somewhat greater for NESB families. Finally, the greater importance that NESB mothers attribute to education appears to mitigate the educational penalty associated with socio-economic disadvantage.

Keywords: education; immigration; intergenerational (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 J11 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2010-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-lab and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Immigration Background and the Intergenerational Correlation in Education (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2010n09

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