Immigration and Math/Science Education

At the risk of becoming embroiled in the morass of discussions about U.S. immigration policy, I ran across an interesting study conducted by the Society for Research in Child Development.

In a nutshell, the study reveals that children of immigrants are more likely to pursue math and science in college than students from the same ethnic groups whose families have been in the U.S. for generations. Additionally, the study finds that the pursuit of math and science is not isolated to one immigrant group, but exists for children of Latino, Afro-Caribbean, and European immigrants. Clearly, children of immigrants pursue math and science as pathways to upward mobility.

According to Vivian Tseng, author of the survey and a program officer at the William T. Grant Foundation in New York City, one in five children in the U.S. has an immigrant parent. Tseng surveyed almost 800 college students between the ages of 18 and 25 about their aspirations for the future. She also collected data on their majors from the large, urban university they attended. She defined students from immigrant families and children of immigrants as those with at least one immigrant parent. She compared those children to students born in the U.S. who also had two parents born in the US.

According to Tseng, one reason these children of immigrants are more likely to pursue math and science than their peers whose families have been in the U.S. for generations is that the students she surveyed had higher economic aspirations and were aiming for better paying occupations than their later-generation peers. "These findings complement previous studies by other researchers," she said. "In interviews, immigrant parents, especially those working in low-wage, low-status jobs, channel their greatest hopes for upward mobility in this new country to their children. They tell their children that they must do well in school so they can have better lives and more satisfying, better paying, and higher status jobs than their parents."

Tseng's study suggests that children of immigrants fare well in ways that are important for the U.S. economy. "At a time when the U.S. economy is facing demands for highly educated workers in technology and science," said Tseng, "children of immigrants may well contribute to our nation's changing workforce needs."

I don't know what the answer is to the immigration challenges the U.S. faces, but I can tell you that education for all benefits all. And when it comes to technology, a strong background math and science is fundamental. That's not rocket science.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 10:18 AM  Permalink