Switching Field of Study and its Implications on Educational Mismatch among Natives and Immigrants

• In Event: 497 - Regular Session. Horizontal Stratification and Fields of Study in Higher Education

Abstract

This paper advances understanding of immigrants’ post-immigration educational attainment by considering one aspect of horizontal stratification in their educational pathways: switching field of study between college and graduate school. Foreign educated immigrants with a STEM degree may be more likely to retain in STEM fields than to switch to non-STEM fields when entering a U.S. graduate school than their native counterparts. This is due to higher transferability of STEM knowledge and immigrants’ weaker context-specific knowledge. Being more able to switch to professional fields from either a STEM field or a non-STEM field, natives can reduce their chance of educational mismatch compared to immigrants. To test these ideas, I compare foreign college-educated immigrants and U.S. college-educated immigrants to U.S. college-educated natives. Data from National Survey of College Graduates show that immigrants are more likely to retain in STEM or to switch to STEM from non-STEM fields; natives are more likely to switch from STEM to law, medicine and business; For those who switched to law, medicine and business, foreign educated immigrants do not significantly increase the match between their education and occupation compared to natives. These results suggest that disadvantaged market outcomes among highly educated immigrants can be explained, in part, by field of study.

Author

• Siqi Han, The Ohio State University