Coethnic Communities and the Educational Attainment of the Foreign born and Native born in the United Kingdom

• In Event: 106 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session I
  In Refereed Roundtable: A. Table 05. Education: International

Abstract

Why educational disparities across immigrant groups persist is an enduring question. One
explanation may be the coethnic community or neighborhoods of individuals from the same country of birth. The effect of coethnic communities on educational attainment have been linked to three frameworks: straight-line assimilation, accommodation without assimilation, and immigrant optimism. Using nonpublic releases of 2008-2009 Annual Population Survey (APS) and publicly available data from UNESCO and the World Bank, I examine the effect of the coethnic community on educational attainment in the UK, net of individual, neighborhood, and national origin group controls. Data is analyzed using ordinal logistic regression models. There are two main findings of this paper. First, living with educated coethnics positively shapes the educational attainment of the first, 1.5, and second generations. This effect of educated coethnics is more influential than that of the neighborhood, group, or other characteristics. Second, the effect of the coethnic community on educational attainment varies by generation and becomes weaker with each generation. For the first generation, those born abroad and immigrated after 15 but received their final degree in the UK, living with educated coethnics has a significant effect on educational attainment, but this effect is less strong with each consecutive generation. This supports the straight line assimilation perspective that coethnic communities are less influential with greater exposure or time in the host country.

Author

• Rennie Lee, University of California-Los Angeles