The role of migration for intergenerational mobility

When they decide to emigrate, migrants often hope for better socioeconomic prospects for themselves and their children. In this chapter, we review the interdisciplinary empirical literature on social mobility within immigrant families. While immigrants often experience downward mobility upon arrival in the destination country, their children are more likely to be upwardly mobile in terms of both educational attainment and labor-market outcomes. Yet, net of distributional differences between groups, the association between parental and children’s SES (i.e. relative mobility or fluidity) appears more similar in immigrant and native families. Compared to their non-migrant counterparts, immigrant families tend to improve their life chances relative to the origin society. Beyond these master trends, empirical studies show varying patterns between different groups and countries. We explore four main mechanisms accounting for observed differences in mobility: (1) immigrant selection, (2) educational systems, (3) ethnic community and neighborhoods, and (4) racial discrimination.