Racial/ethnic differences in post-migration education among adult immigrants in the USA

Abstract

Despite the extensive scholarly interest in racial/ethnic differences in education among immigrants in the USA, limited research has examined the determinants of racial/ethnic gaps in post-migration adult education. Most immigrants, however, move to the USA as young adults, when education is decisive in shaping their incorporation. We use the National Household Education Survey (NHES) to examine whether pre-migration human capital and post-migration socio-economic circumstances can account for racial/ethnic differences in post-migration schooling. The results reveal that Latino/a immigrants are less likely than white and Asian immigrants to attend advanced and career-related educational programmes, but they seek general education more than Asians. These differences can be explained by racial/ethnic disparities in pre-migration human capital and post-migration employment, with pre-migration education and language training being particularly important. We conclude that education has a tendency to reproduce class structures across borders, and that social policy should counteract these cumulative disadvantage processes.

Keywords:

• post-migration education
• foreign-born
• racial/ethnic minorities
• Hispanics
• adult immigrants
• Immigrant Human Capital Investment model

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Erratum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rocío Calvo

ROCÍO CALVO is Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at Boston College and Visiting Scientist at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies.

Natalia Sarkisian

NATALIA SARKISIAN is Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at Boston College.