Cuban and Afro-Caribbean immigrants: an analysis of educational attainment and assimilation in the USA

Abstract

Using the children of immigrants longitudinal study, this research focuses on the extent to which race, class and gender are related to the educational attainment and upward mobility of second-generation Caribbean immigrants within the USA. I employ the classical and contemporary assimilation models as the theoretical framework to explain the degree to which Caribbean immigrants are attaining college degrees or higher within the dominant culture. Research findings indicate that though there is no difference between males and females in educational attainment among the second-generation Caribbean immigrant population, racial and ethnic self-identity and parents’ socio-economic status are significantly related to the academic achievement of these immigrants during young adulthood. This research further illustrates that discrimination is not significantly related to the educational attainment and the subsequent upward mobility of second-generation Caribbean immigrants; even though the respondents indicate that they have in fact been exposed to racial and ethnic discrimination within the USA. These results subsequently challenge the segmented assimilation model which argues that the new wave of immigrants is likely to experience downward assimilation due to the colour of their skin, which successively leads to their inability to integrate into white middle-class America.

Keywords:

• race
• class
• gender
• educational attainment
• Caribbean
• immigrants
• assimilation
• mobility