Schooling Progress in the U.S. and Canada: Context's Effects on Assimilation Patterns of Immigrant Blacks

• In Event: 079 - Regular Session. Sociology of Education: Comparative and Historical Approaches

Abstract

The prevailing opinion the education literature is that 1.5 and second generation black immigrants have higher levels of educational attainment than the native-born. Research points to differences in sociodemographic characteristics to explain the variation observed. However no study has addressed the importance of societal context in predicting the educational attainment and, by extension, the assimilation patterns of black immigrants. In order to address this gap, I compare variation in educational delay among blacks in the United States and Canada. Preliminary results show that context matters. Black immigrants’ likelihood of delay decreases with time in the United States until it is lower than that of the native-born by the second generation. However, there is no significant difference between the outcomes of first, 1.5, and 3+ generation blacks in Canada. These results indicate that conclusions regarding black immigrant achievement and assimilation in the United States cannot be extended to other contexts.

Author

• Rebbeca Tesfai, Temple University