DebBurman, Noyna. (2005). Immigrant Education: Variations by Generation, Age-at-Immigration, and Country of Origin. Reviewed by Ryan S. Wells, University of Iowa

DebBurman, Noyna. (2005). Immigrant Education: Variations by Generation, Age-at-Immigration, and Country of Origin. N.Y: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC. Pp. xvii + 190 $60     ISBN 1-59332-072-8 Reviewed by Ryan S. Wells University of Iowa December 20, 2006 There are few topics in social, political, and economic spheres which are currently as important, and also divisive, as that of immigration. This is especially true in a post-9/11 world where heightened security concerns affect policies and attitudes about immigration and immigrants. This occurs as, according to Census data, over one million immigrants enter the country each year, and as the number of foreign-born people in the U.S. approaches its all time high. Immigration is also an important issue for schools and educational policy makers, but often educational considerations are secondary in the bigger picture. This occurs despite the fact that education is directly tied to income as well as occupational and status attainment. In other words, it is one of the keys to upward social mobility in the U.S. Therefore, immigrant education is not only a factor worth considering for immigrants themselves, but for anyone concerned with the social and economic well-being of U.S. society. There is evidence of ways in which our schools are failing school-age immigrant children, most notably the higher dropout rates of immigrants (see, for example, Portes & Rumbaut, 2006; Rumbaut & Portes, 2001). This occurs despite the fact that children of immigrants are nearly one in 5 of youth in schools today (Jensen, 2001). Although these comments addressed the situation in California specifically, and were written over 10 years ago, they still ring true for the whole country today: one of the biggest challenges is “educating a large, new, highly diverse wave of immigrant children, in resource-short public schools that are, in general, poorly prepared to understand and respond effectively to the special needs of such students, within a political and public opinion context that has become overtly hostile to immigrants and their offspring” (Cornelius, 1995, p. 1). The book Immigrant Education: Variations by Generation, Age-at-Immigration, and Country of Origin, by Noyna DebBurman, brings several of the key considerations about immigration and education to the forefront which will lead to a greater understanding of the issues and will further the discussion of this important topic. Specifically DebBurman examines the educational attainment of adult immigrants, and the enrollments of both high school and preschool children of immigrants, while grounding her study in theories of human capital and the “demand for schooling.” In this review I present the author’s main findings in the areas of educational attainment and school enrollment for immigrants. I then offer a few criticisms of the work, as well as describing the ways that this work is beneficial to current policy efforts. I conclude by suggesting possible directions for future research. Empirical Results After reviewing the literature concerning schooling acquisition, DebBurman reviews human capital theory as a basis for her study. She then reviews the data which she uses – the 1990 Census of Population and Housing and the October, 1995 Current Population Survey (CPS) – and discusses her econometric models. Following this preparation the author has three chapters that deal with the main issues of her study: determinants of 1) the educational attainment of adult immigrants, 2) preschool enrollments of immigrant children, and 3) high school enrollments of youth immigrants. As the title suggests, she analyzes each of these with special attention paid to the effects of generational status (first, second, or native), age-at-immigration, and country of origin. She includes several independent variables from this type of research in the past. The analyses also include interesting and innovative variables as possible outcome determinants, such as the “linguistic distance” of immigrants’ native tongues from English. Her analyses include descriptive statistics and regression-based statistics. I highlight some of the main findings of each of these chapters, though I will not present all findings exhaustively. In her chapter concerning the educational attainment of adult immigrants (age 25 to 64) the author finds that for both foreign-born and native-born individuals, educational attainment increases with age (but at a decreasing rate), that race is a salient factor for educational attainment with Blacks and Hispanics having lower attainment levels, and that males attain higher levels of education than women. These results generally support past research and general educational trends. For immigrant adults, in comparison to native-born adults, the author finds that immigrants from Africa, South and East Asia, and the Philippines have higher levels of attainment on average. In opposition, Mexican and Southern European immigrants have lower average levels of attainment. Perhaps most interesting, and in support of previous research, are the author’s findings concerning age-at-immigration as it affects educational attainment. “Immigration after age 12 is associated with a lower educational level relative to natives, with those immigrating in the 13 to 19 age group exhibiting a particularly large negative differential with their native counterparts” (p. 77). In other words, youth who come to this country during their teenage years experience an additional negative effect on their educational attainment. When the author considers how generational status affects attainment, she finds that the second-generation has higher attainment levels than both first-generation students and native-born students. Age-at-immigration again plays an important role, specifically when comparing first-generation students to native-born students, and again, this importance occurs around the teenage years. First-generation immigrants arriving before the age of 13 attain levels equal to or greater than their native-born peers, but those arriving after age 13 do not. In some studies, first-generation immigrants that arrive in the U.S. at a young age (the “1.5 generation”) are grouped with the second generation due to similarities such as these (Portes & Rumbaut, 2006). DebBurman briefly discusses the “2.5 generation” (native-born children with only one foreign-born parent) though explicit analyses of either of these unique groups are beyond the scope of her book. The author next studies determinants of enrollment in pre-school. She opts to study this level (as well as the 15-18 year-old level, below) because at this level schooling is not mandatory and, therefore, there will be sufficient variance in enrollment rates for statistical analyses. She insightfully includes programs such as Head Start in her analyses, to try to avoid the obvious problem of fee-based instruction which would favor higher socioeconomic status families. For all students, significant variables included the expected determinants of income and race. A mother’s labor force participation and level of education also had positive effects on pre-school enrollments. When comparing immigrants to the native-born population, the results were mixed between the two datasets used. One showed no effects, but the other showed higher enrollments for both first- and second-generation immigrants. Age-at-immigration for this dependent variable was not significant, which is not surprising given the age-levels and small range of ages under consideration. Finally, immigrants from North and West Europe and East Asia had higher pre-school enrollment levels compared to native-born children, as did children from English-speaking countries. The last dependent variable examined was the high school enrollment of 15-18 year-old youth. For all students, several factors had positive effects on enrollment: being female, having higher English proficiency, having a working mother, and having parents with higher levels of education. Both first- and second-generation immigrants had higher enrollment levels than their native-born peers. Compared to native-born youth, immigrants from South and East Asia, the Middle East, and Southern Europe had higher enrollment rates, while, on average, immigrants from the Hispanic Caribbean had lower high school enrollment rates. Summary of Main Findings For adult immigrants, the author finds that the second-generation has the highest levels of educational attainment, over both first-generation and the native-born group. However, she finds lower levels of enrolment in both high school and pre-school for second generation children. One of her most compelling findings is that if children of immigrants come to this country during their teenage/high school years, there is an added detriment to their educational success. She also shows that the racially-stratified U.S. society carries over to the assimilation/acculturation of immigrants, as well as their educational outcomes. For example, Hispanics and Blacks generally have lower attainment and enrollment than their non-Hispanic counterparts. Overall, these chapters reinforce some important past research on immigration, which is always a valuable exercise. In addition, DebBurman effectively shows the importance of factors which are not always a main focus of research concerning immigrant education: generational status, age-at-immigration, and country of origin. Discussion and Implications The author’s concluding chapter discusses policy implications of the research. As highlighted by the author, one of the main findings is that immigration for youth in their teenage years results in disproportionately large educational disadvantages. This is an important finding. However, the author did not fully delve into what this result implies for educational policy, as opposed to immigration policy. Although this is briefly addressed, and that which is addressed is done so well, the discussion could be expanded greatly, and could specifically address meeting the needs of marginalized immigrant students. Nation of origin is also an important variable in examining the educational outcomes of immigrants. The author should be applauded for explicitly examining this as a determinant of educational outcomes. The heterogeneity of immigrant experiences can not be fully captured without examining this variable, as well as generational status, which the author does well. Even so, the comparisons made are occasionally questionable. Although the need to aggregate countries into regional-level variables due to lack of adequate cases is legitimate, it can lead to confusing or meaningless comparisons if not careful, such as claming that “Africa and South Asia are ahead of English-speaking countries” in adult immigrant attainment (p. 56). Although the author takes the research in a country-specific direction, a discussion of why such difference might occur could be expanded. One example of this would be a more nuanced discussion of assimilation. The text refers to the assimilation process and even to assimilation policies, but a more complete discussion of assimilation/acculturation would assist the reader in grasping the underpinnings of the study. This should also include a discussion of segmented assimilation and selective acculturation since the most recent immigrants appear to assimilate/acculturate different than past generations (Portes & Rumbaut, 2006, 2001; Rumbaut & Portes, 2001). This could help to form a broader understanding of why differences may occur, especially by country of origin. When making immigration policy suggestions, a broader explanation and/or understanding of the complexities of immigration could be provided. For example, the author suggests that “immigration policy can be used to reduce the existing gap among various ethnic groups by restricting immigration among adults to those with some specified minimum level of schooling” (p. 142). Though this may achieve the educational attainment outcome specified in the text, it does not fully take into account a U.S. economy that relies heavily on the unskilled labor pool from certain immigrant groups, both legal and illegal. The complexities of the causes and the consequences of immigration, the push and the pull, must be further discussed (see Portes & Rumbaut, 2006). In the worst case scenario, such policies could even be interpreted as favoring some national origins over others since, as the author effectively shows, immigrants from some countries, due to a variety of factors, come to the U.S. with higher average levels of education. Reducing an immigrant attainment gap can not take place without considering the full political and economic implications of suggested policies. A further positive aspect of this text is that is can serve as the basis for future research on immigrant education. Conditional or interaction effects in future regression models would be useful to further explore the country of origin differences which DebBurman uncovers. In the effort to understand why these effects occur, and why there are differences by generation, age-at-immigration, and country of origin, qualitative research would also be quite useful. In addition, discussion and research concerning culture, as opposed to country, would be valuable. From a theoretical point of view, research can also examine these and other aspects of immigrant education from a viewpoint other than that of purely human capital. The author briefly acknowledges some socio-anthropological theories of schooling, investment in schooling, and attainment. However, other frameworks, such as status attainment, have rich histories which could be tapped, that emphasize some of the interpersonal and contextual determinants of educational outcomes, instead of purely economic calculations. More recently theories have been put forth to reconcile the status attainment tradition with rational-based theories such as human capital, which could be especially interesting (Morgan, 2005). Despite the minor suggestions above, this book is a valuable addition to the literature concerning immigration and education. It reminds us of the heterogeneity that exists among immigrants arriving in this country, and emphasizes that research and policies must take this into account. This text emphasizes this point specifically for generational status, age-at-immigration, and country of origin, but the implications can be expanded to other characteristics of the immigrant experience as well. The findings can help immigration and school policies to better meet the needs of both immigrants and American society, and can serve as the basis for valuable future research. References Cornelius, W. A. (1995). Educating California’s immigrant children: Introduction and overview. In R. G. Rumbaut & W. A. Cornelius (Eds.), California's immigrant children: Theory, research, and implications for educational policy (pp. 1-16). San Diego, CA: University of California. Jensen, L. (2001). The demographic diversity of immigrants and their children. In A. Portes & R. G. Rumbaut (Eds.), Ethnicities: Children of immigrants in America (pp. 21-56). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Morgan, S. L. (2005). On the edge of commitment: Educational attainment and race in the united states. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Portes, A., & Rumbaut, R. G. (2006). Immigrant America: A portrait (3rd ed.). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Portes, A., & Rumbaut, R. G. (Eds.). (2001). Legacies: The story of the immigrant second generation. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Rumbaut, R. G., & Portes, A. (Eds.). (2001). Ethnicities: Children of immigrants in America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. About the Reviewer Ryan Wells is a PhD candidate at the University of Iowa in the department of Educational Policy and Leadership Studies. His interests include educational policy, international education, and higher education. His current research examines the effect of schools on the higher education expectations of immigrant students. Copyright is retained by the first or sole author, who grants right of first publication to the Education Review.