Academic Performance and Immigration Experience Prof. Maria Aysa Research Methods Fall 2007

Main research question  Is there positive self-selection among first or second generation immigrant college students? Are there differences by gender?

Previous Research  Positive selection of international migrants (Borjas 1996)  Low educational status among the first immigrant generation (PHC 2007)  Segmented assimilation theory (Zhou 1997)

Previous Research  Chiswick and DebBurman (2003) in their analysis of the educational attainment of the immigrant population in the US found that: Second-generation American adults have the highest level of schooling The gender difference in educational attainment is greatest among the foreign born.

Methods of Analysis  In order to answer the research question I define three groups of students Natives First generation immigrants Second generation immigrants  Estimate differences in academic performance by group and gender

Definitions  Natives A student born in the US  First generation immigrant student A student born in a foreign country  Second generation immigrant student A student born in the US who does not use English at home For the purpose of this analysis I am using Language use at home as a proxy for family’s immigrant experience

Data  Equal probability sample of the FIU student population enrolled during the Fall 2007 semester  Face to face to face interviews  Close-ended questionnaire  IRB approved  Response rate=829/887=93.46%  n=829 students

Main variables  Whether the student was born in the US  Whether English is spoken at home  Current GPA  Sex

Country of Birth  Were you born in the U.S.?

Use of English at home  Do you speak English at home?

Country of Birth by Use of English at home

Relative distribution of the FIU population by immigrant experience

Mean differences of GPA by immigrant experience

Mean differences of GPA by immigrant experience for Men

Mean differences of GPA by immigrant experience for Women

Conclusions  In general, women report higher academic performance on average than men  First generation immigrant college student population at FIU report higher academic performance than natives and second generation immigrant students

Conclusions  The second-generation immigrant FIU students do not have the highest academic performance. Potentially due to a segment assimilation effect  The gender difference in academic performance are greatest among the first generation immigrant population. Self-selection among the female immigrant population

Limitations and Areas of Further Research  We need to identify and exclude international students from the analysis.  We need to include in the analysis other key explanatory variables such as: household income, years in the US, race and ethnicity