The School Readiness of the Children of Immigrants in the United States: The Role of Families, Childcare and Neighborhoods

At present, little is known about the welfare of very young immigrant children, since the emphasis thus far has been on the integration of school-aged children and youths into host societies (e.g. Leventhal et al. 2006; Portes and Hao 2004; Zhou and Bankston 1994). However invaluable these studies are in understanding how well the children of immigrants fare, particularly at school, and in predicting their socioeconomic mobility as adults, they cannot ascertain how early the onset of these nativity differences is. Researchers across the disciplines are thus increasingly turning their attention to the early childhood period to better understand how learning gaps between the children of immigrant versus native-born parentage – that is, second- and third-plus generations, respectively – are formed and persist prior to school entry (Fuller et al. 2009; Johnson de Feyter and Winsler 2009; Takanishi, 2004). The recent availability of longitudinal and large-scale birth cohort studies, such as the Fragile Families Study of Child Well-being, facilitates analyses which address early childhood research with a focus on nativity.young immigrant children, integration, school-aged children and youths, host societies, Fragile Families Study of Child Well-being