The Immigrant-Native Educational Achievement Gap in Countries with Selective Immigration Policies

Chris Sakellariou
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Chris Sakellariou: Economics, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

No 1801, Economic Growth Centre Working Paper Series from Nanyang Technological University, School of Social Sciences, Economic Growth Centre

Abstract: The literature on the immigrant-native educational achievement gap is suggestive of a better performance of immigrant students in countries practicing selective immigration policies. However, the origin of such differences remains unexplained. I use PISA data and an investigative method which considers both important observed characteristics and the role of unobservables in explaining immigrant-native achievement differences in four selective immigration countries. I find that 1st generation immigrant students generally perform as well as native students after accounting for unobservables. In two countries – Australia and Singapore – 2nd generation immigrant students exhibit a consistent performance advantage even after considering unobservables. In explaining the findings, one needs to look at successful immigration policies as screening devices which induce self-selection of immigrants with transferable and adaptive skills. Finally, institutional differences with respect to how inclusionary and conducive to integration of immigrants into the host country policies are, should also be part of the explanation.

Keywords: Educational achievement gap; selective immigration policies; unobservables (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 I21 I24 J15 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2018-01
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nan:wpaper:1801

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