The Generation 2.5Curse? ComparingEducationalOutcomes for Children of Immigrant Intermarriages in the United States

Is having one native-born parent an advantage for the child of an immigrant? Much of the classical literature on immigrant assimilation would suggest that children with one native-born and one foreign-born parent (generation 2.5) should fare better than those whose parents are bothforeign-born (generation 2.0) Generation 2.5 individuals should have greater access to native networks, face less discrimination, and better bicultural awareness. Despite these seeming advantages, recent studies suggestthe opposite,withgeneration2.5havingworse educational outcomes thantheirgeneration 2.0 counterparts. Inthis paper,weutilize propensityscore matching to evaluate differences in educational outcomes between these two groups. We estimate that on average, generation2.5havenearlyhalfayearlesseducationthantheirgeneration2.0counterpartsdespite having better-educated parents onaverage. A number of explanations for this are explored, witha higher degree of bilingualism for generation 2.0,foreign-bornparents investing more inchildren\u27s education, and access to highly skilled immigrant networks being the most promising explanations