Dreaming in Spain: parental determinants of immigrant children's ambition

Abstract

We examine determinants of educational and occupational aspirations and expectations among children of immigrants in Spain on the basis of a unique data set that includes statistically representative data for foreign-origin secondary students in Madrid and Barcelona plus a sample of one-fourth of their parents. Independently collected data for both generations allow us to establish effects of parental characteristics on children's orientations without the confounding potential inherent in children's reports about parents. We analyse first determinants of parental ambition and, through a series of stepwise regressions, the effects of these goals and other parental and family characteristics on children's aspirations and expectations. A structural equations model synthesizes the results of the analysis. The model confirms predictions from the research literature, especially those based on the Wisconsin status attainment model, but rejects others, including the predicted significance of private versus public school attendance. Parental ambition, knowledge of Spanish by parents and children, gender and children's age are major determinants of youths' educational and occupational goals. These results have direct implications for policy; these are discussed in the conclusion.

Keywords:

• Aspirations
• expectations
• children of immigrants
• adaptation
• Spain

Notes

1. Data for this analysis come from the Longitudinal Study of the Second Generation (ILSEG in its Spanish acronym) conducted by a consortium of the Center for Migration and Development at Princeton University and the Ortega y Gasset Foundation of Madrid. It has been supported by grants from the Spencer Foundation of Chicago and the Community of Madrid. Responsibility for the contents is exclusively the authors’.

2. The Wisconsin status attainment model was based on a large sample of Wisconsin youths interviewed in their last year of secondary school in 1957 and re-interviewed in 1964 when most had completed their education. On the basis of these longitudinal data, a model was developed using path analysis and predicting early occupational status as a five-stage causal process, with PSES and mental ability as exogenous variables. Educational and occupational aspirations played a key role in the model, mediating the effects of exogenous and other intervening variables on the final outcomes. The original model, published in 1969, was subsequently replicated by other studies using different data sets. For the most part, results confirmed the validity of the original causal formulation.

3. These are known as ‘concerted’ schools because they are state supported, but privately administered.

4. Educacioń Secundaria Obligatoria.

5. University and postgraduate expectations for children reached 54 per cent among Colombian parents, 44 per cent among Ecuadoreans, 40 per cent among Pakistanis, 36 per cent among Dominicans and 45 per cent among Romanians. Corresponding figures among their children were 31, 20, 27, 23, and 25 per cent, respectively. Exceptions were Moroccan and especially Chinese parents whose special case is discussed below.

6. The item components of PSII include the following questions coded on a four-point scale from ‘Never’ (lowest) to ‘Almost always’: 1=Talks to his/her child about what happens in school; 2=Helps his/her child with school homework; 3=Talks to his/her child about what she/he will study in the future or his/her plans after finishing school; 4=Attends parent's reunions at school.

7. One may assume that the effect of knowledge of Spanish simply reflects the difference between Latin American nationalities, for which Spanish is the native tongue, and non-Spanish speaking immigrant groups. This is not the case. Gross differences in parental aspirations and expectations across nationalities are erratic and do not reflect any clear pattern in favour of Latin American groups. The only significant pattern is the consistent disadvantage of the Chinese in all three dependent variables. This disadvantage is reduced, but does not disappear, once knowledge of Spanish enters the equation. Certain Latin American nationalities such as Ecuadoreans and Dominicans actually exhibit significantly lower levels of ambition for their children.

8. A separate analysis of these data demonstrates the effects of this intergenerational transmission and uses it to explain the vast gap between the low educational aspirations of second-generation Chinese in the Spanish context and the very high ones among their counterparts in the USA (see Yiu 2012).

9. Once again, it may be argued that the effect of knowledge of Spanish is due to differences between Latin American nationalities and non-Spanish speaking groups. This is not the case. Initial differences in aspirations and expectations among immigrant nationalities before controlling for other variables do not reveal any clear pattern, nor any advantage for Latin American groups.

10. Measurement of occupational expectations in this survey is similar to that employed in the OECD- Sponsored Program of International Student Achievement (PISA) that conducts regular large surveys of secondary school students in fifty countries, including Spain (OECD 2007).

11. The results are available from the authors upon request.

12. The sample included state-supported private schools, but not those that are exclusively private. Exclusively private schools charge high tuition fees and, hence, are attended by children of affluent families. Few children of immigrants are found in these schools, which was the reason that they were excluded from the sample. Hence, the issue of whether attendance to these exclusive schools affects children's plans is not answerable on the basis of the present data.