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The Skill Development of Children of Immigrants

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  • Hull, Marie C.

    (University of North Carolina, Greensboro)

  • Norris, Jonathan

    (University of Strathclyde)

Abstract

In this paper, we study the evolution of cognitive and noncognitive skills gaps for children of immigrants between kindergarten and 5th grade. We find some evidence that children of immigrants begin school with lower math scores than children of natives, but this gap disappears in later elementary school. For noncognitive skills, children of immigrants and children of natives score similarly in early elementary school, but a positive gap opens up in 3rd grade. We find that the growth in noncognitive skills is driven by disadvantaged (e.g., low-SES) immigrant students. We discuss potential explanations for the observed patterns of skill development as well as the implications of our results for the labor market prospects of children of immigrants.

Suggested Citation

  • Hull, Marie C. & Norris, Jonathan, 2018. "The Skill Development of Children of Immigrants," IZA Discussion Papers 11724, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11724
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    Cited by:

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    2. Marie C. Hull, 2023. "What divides the first and second generations? Family time of arrival and educational outcomes for immigrant youth," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 89(3), pages 754-787, January.
    3. Cobb-Clark Deborah A. & Harmon Colm & Staneva Anita, 2021. "The bilingual gap in children's language, emotional, and pro-social development," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 10(1), pages 1-41, January.
    4. Nejad, Maryam Naghsh & Schurer, Stefanie, 2022. "Cognitive and non-cognitive abilities of immigrants: New perspectives on migrant quality from a selective immigration country," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 107-124.
    5. Nguyen, Ha Trong & Connelly, Luke & Le, Huong Thu & Mitrou, Francis & Taylor, Catherine L. & Zubrick, Stephen R., 2019. "Sources of ethnicity differences in non-cognitive development in children and adolescents," EconStor Preprints 205801, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    6. Chiara Zisler & Damiano Pregaldini & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2023. "Opening doors for immigrants: The importance of occupational and workplace-based cultural skills for successful labor market entry," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0204, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    7. María Ladrón de Guevara Rodríguez & Oscar David Marcenaro-Gutierrez & Luis Alejandro Lopez-Agudo, 2023. "On the Gender Gap of Soft-Skills: the Spanish Case," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(1), pages 167-197, February.
    8. Marcenaro-Gutierrez, O.D. & Lopez-Agudo, L.A. & Henriques, C.O., 2021. "Are soft skills conditioned by conflicting factors? A multiobjective programming approach to explore the trade-offs," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 18-40.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    children of immigrants; cognitive and noncognitive skills; test score gap;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

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