Children of Immigrants Come Out Ahead of Peers

Almost one quarter of American children are the children of immigrants, based on Census Bureau's American Community Survey 2009.

Sociologists at The Johns Hopkins University have concluded that children of immigrants are outperforming children whose family trees have deeper roots in the United States, learning more in school and then making smoother transitions into adulthood.

Researchers Lingxin Hao and Han S. Woo tracked nearly 11,000 children from as young as age 13 into their early 30s, coming from families with diverse backgrounds.

When compared with children with similar socioeconomic status and school conditions, the researchers found that the best students, and later the most successful young adults, were born in foreign countries and came to the United States before reaching their teens.

American-born children whose parents were immigrants followed closely in terms of achievement.

Hao and Woo found that the advantages were comparable for both Asian and Hispanic children.

The study was published in the September/October 2012 edition of the journal Child Development.

"Our findings challenge the view that children of immigrants are lagging behind children of native-born parents in the transitioning to adulthood," Hao said. "Given the same backgrounds, children of immigrants are actually more likely to follow the best trajectory leading to positive early adult outcomes."

Hao and Woo followed data linked to individual children from ages 13 to 17 up to ages 25 to 32. The researchers set out to see which groups of children followed the best trajectory in terms of academic achievement, which Hao and Woo measured by the level of difficulty in the math and science courses the students completed. They also looked at school engagement, or the proportion of courses each high schooler passed in an academic year, assuming that if students were engaged in their work, they should pass every class.

To measure success when the subjects reached their 20s and 30s, Hao and Woo looked at the level of the highest academic degrees attained and general psychological well-being using a scale based on feelings of social belonging, control of life circumstances and confidence in handling personal problems.

Hao suggests that there is a greater sense of community among immigrants out of necessity: Newcomers often need a lot of assistance when they first arrive in the United States. But Hao thinks there is also a great deal of inspiration to be found among the immigrant community.

Parents might be working multiple low-level jobs and encourage their children to seek a better life for themselves. The success stories of immigrants who have "made it" are also held up as role models for immigrant children, something children of native-born parents might be lacking, Hao says. To that end, this research can inform education and labor-force policy makers when it comes to new plans to help lower socioeconomic groups move ahead, she says.

"My hope is that policymakers will look at our findings and work on ways to create similar 'protective factors' for all racial minority children, because these factors allow children from immigrant families to do well and be resilient despite their lower socioeconomic and racial-minority backgrounds," Hao said.