How Local Context Affects the Education of the Children of Immigrants and Natives in France

• In Event: Migration and Place

Abstract

There is strong evidence that the residential context during adolescence shapes the future life trajectories of the general population, but we know much less about how local contexts affects immigrants and their children. This study examines the connection between these contexts and the educational attainment of French 1.5- and second-generation immigrants and their native counterparts (3rd+ generation). Using restricted data from two waves of the French Trajectoires et Origines survey (from 2008–2009 and 2019–2020), our results indicate that the local socioeconomic composition and the local strength of anti-immigrant parties during adolescence are important and positive predictors for higher educational attainment for both the children of immigrants and natives. Additionally, the share of co-ethnics from the same immigrant background negatively predicts educational attainment for the children of immigrants. We explain the relationship between socioeconomic composition and co-ethnic share on higher educational attainment as reflecting peer effects, where higher or lower status neighbors offer different sets of role models and network opportunities for children. We explain the puzzling impact of anti-immigrant parties as reflecting either differences in the quality of educational institutions or heightened ethnic competition at school, which produces a minority culture of mobility. Besides the impact of the co-ethnic community, which does not affect natives, we find no support for the idea that context influences the children of immigrants in different ways than native children.

Authors

• Francisco Lara-García, Hofstra University

• Flavien Ganter, European University Institute

• Andreas Wimmer, Columbia University