Is Child like Parent? Educational Attainment and Ethnic Origin

Arbeitspapier

The speed at which immigrants assimilate is the subject of debate. Human capital formation plays a major role in this discussion. This paper compares the educational attainment of second generation immigrants to those of natives in the same age cohort. Evidence using a large German data set suggests ethnicity does matter: the size of the ethnic network has a positive effect on educational attainment, and a clear pattern is exhibited between countries-of-origin and educational attainment even in the second generation. For the children of the foreign-born, parental schooling plays no role in making educational choices. However, for Germans, contrary to the general findings in the literature, there is a statistically significant difference in favor of father´s education over mother's education.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 57

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination ; Analysis of Education ; Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
• Subject: Assimilation ; ethnicity ; migration ; education ; second generation migrants ; Internationale Arbeitsmobilität ; Ethnische Gruppe ; Soziale Integration ; Jugendliche ; Bildungsniveau ; Bildungsinvestition ; Theorie ; Deutschland

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Gang, Ira N. ; Zimmermann, Klaus F.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 1999

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/20892
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET