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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Nov 24.
Published in final edited form as: Int Migr Rev. 2012;46(1):37–60. doi: 10.1111/j.1747-7379.2012.00880.x

Race and schooling enrollment among the children of African immigrants in the United States

Kevin JA Thomas 1
PMCID: PMC4241587  NIHMSID: NIHMS643206  PMID: 22741163

Abstract

This study examines whether previous findings of an immigrant schooling advantage among Blacks in the US reflect a declining significance of race in the enrollment patterns of immigrants’ children. Using data from the 2000 US census the study finds that, despite their advantage within the Black population, the children of Black Africans are collectively disadvantaged relative to the children of White Africans. Disparate enrollment trajectories are found among children in Black and White African families. Specifically, between the first and second generations, enrollment outcomes improved among the children of White Africans but declined among Black Africans’ children. The results also suggest that among immigrants from African multi-racial societies, pre-migration racial schooling disparities do not necessarily disappear after immigration to the US. Additionally, the children of Black Africans from these contexts have worse outcomes than the children of other Black African immigrants and their relative disadvantage persists even after other factors are controlled.

Introduction

Rapid growth in African emigration to the US in the past two decades has resulted in the expansion of studies on the welfare of African immigrants’ children (e.g. Chacko 2003; Obeng 2007; Venters and Gany 2009). This trend marks a significant departure from the relative lack of research on African immigrants in the previous literature. In seeking to understand the incorporation processes of African immigrants, recent studies have also produced key insights into their health outcomes (David and Collins 1997), economic well-being (Dodoo 1997; Kollehlon and Eule 2003), and socio-demographic profiles (Arthur 2000; Mbaya, Mrina, and Levin 2007; Wilson and Habecker 2008). Furthermore, African immigrants are also now more visible in studies on educational achievement. Most of these studies, however, focus on Black Africans, and compare their educational performance with that of either US natives, more so US-Blacks, or other Black immigrants. Invariably, these comparisons demonstrate that levels of educational achievement among Black Africans are higher than those of US Black Natives (Kent 2007; Dodoo 1997). Their children also outperform the children of native-Blacks and, in most cases, have better indicators of educational achievement than the children of other Black immigrants (Rong and Brown 2001). In fact, other studies suggest that Black Africans are among the most highly educated sub-populations now living in the United States (Kaba 2007).

While these findings make significant contributions to our understanding of African immigrant incorporation processes, they fail to address critical gaps in the existing literature. For example, despite the racial diversity that characterizes the African immigrant population (Djamba 1999; Gordon 1998), the dynamics of schooling among the children of White Africans have not been examined in prior studies. Similarly, the absence of comparative studies on racial schooling differences among Africans complicates our interpretation of previous findings showing exceptionally high levels educational attainment among Black Africans. For example, does the educational success of Black African immigrants imply that race is not a barrier to African educational achievement? Do Black African immigrants and their children have higher levels of educational attainment compared to their White African counterparts? What happens to the racial differences in schooling as Africans become more assimilated into the US society? In the absence of answers to these questions existing studies generally provide an incomplete portrait of the educational profile of African immigrants.

Also related to these gaps in the literature is the lack of systematic attempts to compare the schooling indicators of White Africans and US-born Whites. Consequently, the extent to which the African immigrant advantage found among Blacks is replicable among the US White population has not been empirically determined. More generally, the restrictive focus on schooling comparisons between African immigrants and US natives in many previous studies comes at the expense of more robust analyses of the determinants of schooling among African immigrants. A major consequence of this is that little is known about the ways in which their schooling outcomes are influenced by factors such as language proficiency, age at arrival, and family characteristics, and whether the influences of these factors vary across race.

Using data from the 2000 US census, this study attempts to bridges these gaps in the literature by examining racial disparities in non-enrollment among the children of African immigrants. In the course of the analysis the children of Black and White Africans will be respectively compared with children in native Black and White families. In addition, the study will examine whether the African immigrant advantage found among Blacks precludes a racial minority disadvantage among Black immigrants, by documenting enrollment differences between the children of Black and White African immigrants. A third objective of this study is to examine variations in the association between non-enrollment and generational status among the children of Black and White Africans. Drawing from the segmented assimilation theory, it hypothesizes that as generational status increases, the enrollment gap between the children of Black and White children of Africans will increase. In other words, because Black Africans encounter structural barriers associated with racial minority status as they assimilate, the children of Black Africans are expected to have a greater enrollment disadvantage relative to White Africans in the second than first generation. The study will then conclude by examining the determinants of non-enrollment separately for the children of Black and White African immigrants.

Theoretical perspectives

Pre-immigration inequalities

Social inequalities in immigrant origin regions have important implications for understanding racial schooling differences among African immigrants. One legacy of European colonization in Africa is that African countries with significant native White populations now have considerable social inequalities that are conditional on race. Native Whites in South Africa, for example, have higher incomes and are less likely to live in poverty than native Blacks (Nattrass and Seekings 2001; Klasen 1997). Likewise, previous research indicates that Blacks are economically disadvantaged relative to Whites in African countries such as Kenya (Hughes 2006) and Zimbabwe (Gordon 1981; Laakso 2002). Significantly, pre-migration racial inequalities also extend to indicators of educational attainment in many African multi-racial societies. In South Africa, for example, White natives are more likely to be enrolled in school or complete more years of schooling than their Black counterparts (Case and Deaton 1999; Van de Berg and Burger 2003). Historically, White European settlement in Africa was also greater in countries with more than less economic resources (Hammer 2010). As a result, White Africans, compared to the most Black Africans, are now more likely to live in contemporary Africa’s more developed nations. Income and literacy levels, for example, are still higher in South Africa, Mauritius, Namibia, and other White-African origin countries than in many of the major origin countries of Black African immigrants, including Nigeria and Ghana (World Bank 2010).

Pre-immigration racial inequalities are, therefore, likely to affect children’s schooling in two ways. First, for immigrants from multi-racial African societies, schooling differences among children in the US are likely to reflect origin-country racial inequalities that have simply been transferred across borders during the migration process. Second, other things being equal, White African families may be more likely to arrive in the US with more economic resources and higher educational credentials than Black African families. Since higher family incomes facilitate access to more schooling resources, e.g. access to better quality schools (Alderman, Orazem, and Pateron 2001), and parent’s education is positive correlated with that of their children (Glick and Sahn 2000; Haveman, Wolfe, and Spaulding 1991), schooling indicators are expected to be lower among children with Black than White Africans. Yet, these differences should disappear after differences in familial and parental characteristics are controlled.

Post-immigration inequalities

Beyond the influence of pre-migration inequalities are the impacts of racial inequalities encountered after immigrants arrive in the US. Regardless of pre-immigration circumstances, immigrants to the US are incorporated into a society with known systematic patterns of racial inequality that exist among its native population. Significantly, the same patterns of disadvantage associated with racial minority status among US natives have also been found among immigrants in the US. For example, consistent with the comparative labor-market disadvantage of native racial minorities (e.g. Huffman and Cohen 2004), scholars have found an income disadvantage among Black relative to White immigrants (e.g. Zavodny 2003) while similar race-based income disparities have also been observed among African immigrants (Dodoo and Takyi 2002). Stolzenberg and Tienda (1997) also suggest that immigrants with minority characteristics receive lower returns to human capital than White immigrants. Racial inequalities within the labor market may therefore result in schooling disparities among immigrants by uniquely constricting the resources available for schooling among immigrants with racial minority characteristics.

Existing studies on educational achievement among the children of immigrants have also found broader racial disparities that point to a schooling disadvantage associated with having racial minority characteristics. Kao (2004), for example, indicates that White immigrants have higher GPAs than their Black or Hispanic counterparts. In short, even though Black immigrants generally outperform Black natives (Bennett and Lutz 2009; Massey et al 2007), possibly because of parental migrant selectivity (Feliciano 2005), race is still an important mediator of schooling differences among the children of immigrants. Murguia and Telles (1996) also report that lighter-skinned and European-looking Mexican Americans have higher GPAs than among their darker-skinned counterparts. Tellingly, their results indicate that these racial differences persist even after other factors are controlled. At the same time, comparisons of the outcomes of Black immigrants and White natives have revealed a number of mixed findings. Among college students, for example, Massey et al (2007) find that Black immigrants have lower GPAs than White natives. In contrast, Bennett and Lutz (2009) indicate that the children of Black immigrants are more likely than the children of White natives to attend selective colleges and universities.

Assimilation theory

A useful framework for understanding the significance of race in immigrant incorporation processes is provided by assimilation theory. Conventional assimilation theory uses evidence from White European immigrants in the early twentieth century to predict the trajectory of immigrant social and economic outcomes during the assimilation process (Alba and Nee 1997). Based on the White immigrant experience, classical assimilation theory will suggest that immigrants experience improved outcomes, with increasing generational status, and these outcomes will ultimately converge with those of US natives. Segmented assimilation theory, on the other hand, argues that factors such as race, human capital, and contexts of reception have a considerable bearing on the ways in which immigrant groups are incorporated into the US (Portes and Zhou 1993; Zhou 997). For African immigrants, the main implication of segmented assimilation processes is that Black Africans, because of their racial minority characteristics, will be less likely than White African immigrants to experience improved socioeconomic outcomes as they assimilate. In other words, race is expected to impose a greater constraint to the educational incorporation of Black Africans, as result of factors such as racial discrimination, than among White Africans. Bashi and McDaniel (1997) further suggest that Black immigrants will face greater structural constraints to social mobility than non-Black immigrants because of the theoretical incorporation of the former into the bottom of the US racial hierarchy. Segmented assimilation theory also suggests that immigrants with high levels of human capital will have more favorable outcomes than low human-capital immigrants during the assimilation process. However, there is a lack of studies on the extent to which racial differences in educational achievement among the children of African immigrants will persist even after differences in parental human-capital are controlled.

Language attributes and family structure

Research on immigrant educational achievement has also documented that there is a positive association between English language proficiency and immigrant educational achievement (Fry 2003). Yet, the ways in which language differences affect racial schooling disparities among immigrants are not quite clear. One possibility is that low levels of English proficiency may be more of a constraint to schooling among the children of Black than White Africans, since Black African immigration to the US is relatively more recent (Gordon 1998). At the same time, White Africans are also less likely than Black Africans to come from countries such as Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea where a non-European Language is most dominant or official language. Prior studies (e.g. Chiswick and Miller 2001) generally indicate that non-European languages have a greater linguistic distance from English than European Languages (e.g. French, Portuguese, etc). As such, these differences can potentially constrict rates of English proficiency acquisition among the Black Africans since they have higher levels of exposure to non-European languages than White Africans in their countries of origin.

Children in Black African families may also be more likely than other children to have schooling outcomes that are negatively influenced by the structural characteristics of their families. According to Brandon (2002), Black children of immigrants are less likely to live with married parents, and more likely to live with single-mothers, than their European, Asian, and Mexican counterparts. These disparities generally remain unchanged as generational status increases. In general, they also imply that known familial constraints to schooling, such as single-parent families (Pong 1997), will be more prevalent among the children of Black African immigrant compared to their counterparts with White immigrant parents.

Hypotheses

Four hypotheses are thus tested in the empirical analyses. First, the children of Black and White Africans immigrants are respectively hypothesized to be less likely to be non-enrolled than children in Black and White native families. Despite the immigrant advantage within race, however, the study also hypothesizes that children of Black immigrants will, on average, have a higher probability of non-enrollment than the children of White immigrants. Most of the Black immigrant disadvantage is expected to be explained by differences in familial characteristics such as family income, parental schooling, and family structure and differences in English proficiency. As predicted by the segmented assimilation theory, the study’s third hypothesis is that with increasing generational status, declines in non-enrollment will be greater among the children of White than Black African immigrants. Finally, among Black immigrants, differences in non-enrollment are hypothesized to be conditional on pre-migration exposure to racial minority disadvantage. In particular, the children of Black immigrants from pre-immigration contexts where Blacks are socioeconomically disadvantaged relative to Whites, are expected to have even less favorable outcomes than the children of Black Africans with no exposure to such contexts before migrating to the US.

Data and Methods

To test these hypotheses, the study uses data from a five percent probability sample of the 2000 US census available in the repository of the Integrated Public Use Microdata Samples (IPUMS-USA) of the Minnesota Population Center (Ruggles et. al. 2010). Given its large number of total observations, this sample is one of the few available datasets from which meaningful samples of the African and native components of the US population can be generated. The census data also contain information on a range of social and demographic characteristics that can be broken down by race. In addition, unique household identification numbers in the census data make it possible to generally link children and parents who live within the same household. As others have shown (e.g. Landale, Oropesa, and Llanes 1998), these linkages can be used to identify children of immigrants based on the place of birth of household-heads and their spouses. Children of African immigrants are thus identified as children with either household heads or spouses of household heads who were born in Africa. In addition, to increase the robustness of this identification procedure, the final sample is restricted to biological children living in households.

Census information on the race of immigrant parents is then used to distinguish between the biological children of Black and White African immigrants. Thus, children of Black and White immigrants are respectively defined as children with Black and White household-heads or spouses of household-heads who were born in African countries. Children with both a Black and White African parent, about less than 1 percent of all children of African immigrants, are excluded from the analysis. Furthermore, the children of African immigrants are further divided into two broad generational status groups. First-generation children are defined as foreign-born children with African immigrant parents while second-generation children are defined as the US-born children of these parents.

Children in US-born families, or third and higher generation children, are children with only US-born parents. Specifically, the children in US-born Black and White families are respectively defined as the biological children of US-born parents who are Black and White. As with the African family sample, children with both a Black and White US-born parent are excluded from the native family sample. To maximize the overall sample size, especially given the small size of the African immigrant population – about 3% of the US population, the analysis is conducted using data for youths between age 12 and 21.

The study’s outcome of interest is non-enrollment among the adolescents who have not yet graduated from high school. This indicator is measured as a binary outcome equal to 1 if non-high school graduates are not currently enrolled in school but equal to 0 if they are. In general, school attendance is mandatory in the US although not at all grade levels for all states. However, other studies have used similar enrollment measures to examine schooling outcomes among children and found profound differences among the children of immigrants (e.g. Fischer 2010; Hirschman 2001, Chiswick and DebBurman 2006). Hirschman (2001), however, rightly points out that results derived from the analysis of school enrollment indicators only provide an insight into the schooling incorporation of the children of immigrants in the early part of their educational careers. Yet such insights can also be instructive. As Hirschman further suggests, within the segmented assimilation framework, enrollment indictors provide useful information on a significant problem faced by immigrant communities, that is, the risks of schooling dropout.

Logistic regression models with household-level random effects are used to analyze how race and immigration status are associated with non-enrollment risks among adolescents. The basic form of the estimation equation is shown in equation 1.

Yij=α+βbCij+βcHij+μj+εij (1)

The outcome variable, Yij, represents the logit of the probability of non-enrollment for child i in household j. This probability is dependent on a vector of child level characteristics, C, including child age and sex, and whether or not children are proficient in English (i.e. they speak English very well or speak only English), household and parental-level characteristics, H, and household-level random-effects μj. Regression estimates are first estimated for the sample for all children of African immigrants in order to examine collective differences between the children of Black and White African immigrants. Both sets of children are then compared with the children of native Blacks and Whites. Following these comparisons, separate regression models are estimated for the children of Black and White Africans to examine whether factors such as age at arrival and familial characteristics have disparate associations with the probability of non-enrollment in Black and White African immigrant families.

Descriptive Findings

According to Table 1, children in the sample are quite similar in terms of age and sex, regardless of parental migration status. Yet, child-level similarities in Black and White African families disappear when characteristics such as generational status and English proficiency are compared. Consistent with the recent increases in Black African immigration to the US (Gordon 1998; Kent 2007), there is a greater proportion of foreign-born (i.e. first-generation children) children in Black (48.1%) than White (28.3%) African families. In contrast, more than two-thirds of children in White immigrant families are US-born or second generation children. In terms of English proficiency, Table 1 indicates that first-generation children of Black Africans are less likely to speak English very well or speak only English than their counterparts born with White African parents. Among second generation children, however, linguistic differences between the two groups are not statistically significant. These broad language differences generally have two conceptual implications for schooling disparities among Africans. First, because English-language proficiency is negatively associated with school enrollment among immigrant youth, the linguistic constraint to schooling is likely to be greater in the first than second generation in both Black and White African families. Second, among first generation children, greater language constraints to schooling are likely to be found among the children of Black than White African immigrant parents.

Table 1.

Summary characteristics of the children in African immigrant and US-Native families

Children in African Immigrant Families Children in US-Native Families
Black White Black White
Age (Mean) 14.8*† 14.7† 15.1* 14.9
Males 52 52.9 51.3* 52.5
First-generation 48.1* 28.3 - -
Second-generation 51.9* 71.7 - -
English proficiency
  First-generation 75.2* 86.5 - -
  Second-generation 95.4 95.6 - -
Single-parent families 31.7*† 11.6† 63.1* 25.3
H. head is a college grad. 48.7*† 57.7† 10.1* 26.4
Family size (Mean) 5.2*† 4.6† 4.3* 4.2
Family income (Mean) $61,000† $104,000† $37,800* $70,600
Not enrolled in school 4.2*† 2.4† 8.5* 4.7
N 3,044 1,885 123,751 765,941
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Data Source: 5% sample of the 2000 US census

*

p<0.05 for differences between the children of Blacks and Whites within immigrant or native families

†

p<0.05 for differences between the children of immigrants and natives among Blacks or Whites

Parental and familial characteristics shown in Table 1 also differ across family immigration status and race. Within race, for example, children in immigrant families have more favorable parental and familial indicators than children in native families. White and Black Africans’ children are, therefore, less likely to live in single-parent families, more likely to have household heads who graduated from college, and more likely live in wealthier families than the children of their native counterparts. Notwithstanding the immigrant advantage observed among Blacks, Black Africans are still more socio-economically disadvantaged relative to White Africans, underscoring the significance of race in mediating familial socioeconomic circumstances even among African immigrants. For example, on average, Black African families, earn only about sixty percent of the average income of White African families, even though incomes are much higher in Black African than native Black families. Of the four groups, however, familial socioeconomic indicators are most favorable among the children of White African immigrants.

Gross non-enrollment rates presented in Table 1 also follow the same parental-nativity patterns as those observed in familial socioeconomic indicators. Accordingly, the children of Black immigrants collectively have lower non-enrollment rates than the children of Black natives, reflecting the immigrant schooling advantage among Blacks found in previous studies. In fact, according to Table 1, the non-enrollment rate of the children of Black immigrants is also slightly lower than that of the children of Native Whites (p<0.05). Among Whites, Table 1 indicates that having immigrant parents is also advantageous in terms of school enrollment, since the children of White Africans have lower non-enrollment rates than the children of native Whites. Notwithstanding the advantage of immigrant families across race, Table 1 reveals a consistent pattern of Black enrollment disadvantage in both immigrant and native families. As such, it provides preliminary evidence underscoring the significance racial minority status, irrespective of parental immigration status, as a mediator of differences in children’s schooling.

Multiple Regression Results

Results from the multiple regression analyses of the determinants of non-enrollment among the children of African immigrants are presented in Table 2. Model 1 is a base-line model that simply confirms that the children of Black Africans collectively have a higher probability of non-enrollment than the children of White Africans, before other factors are controlled. In Model 2, however, the results suggest that the disadvantage of Blacks is not explained by age and gender differences among children. As a result, the inclusion of these demographic controls does not eliminate the relative disadvantage of the children of Black Africans. As Model 3 suggests, the Black disadvantage may, however, be partly driven by differences in familial socioeconomic factors. Specifically, after household heads’ educational attainment and family incomes are controlled, the relative non-enrollment disadvantage of the children of Black Africans becomes statistically insignificant.

Table 2.

Logistic regression coefficients showing the factors associated with the probability of non-enrollment among the children of African immigrants

Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4
Children of Black-Africans 0.82** 0.58* 0.38 0.42
Children of White-Africans (Ref.) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00)
Age 0.74** 0.72*** 0.74**
Male 0.33 0.31 0.32
English proficient (yes=1) −0.73*
Generational Status
    First generation −0.53*
    Second-generation (Ref.) (0.00)
Household Characteristics
Single-parent family −0.42
H. head is a college graduate −0.49* −0.56*
Log of family size −0.48
Log of family income −0.16** −0.17**
Parental country of origin
  South African parents (yes=1) −0.80
    Children of Blacks × South African parents 3.88**
Constant −6.5*** −17.3*** −14.8*** −13.4***
Rho 0.69 0.55 0.51 0.52
Log Likelihood −705.1 −578.9 −572.7 −561.9
N 4,929 4,929 4,929 4,929
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*

p<0.05,

**

p<0.01,

***

p<0.001

In Model 4, the full model, the analysis accounts for differences in other child and familial-level factors, including generational status and family size. Moreover, the analysis also accounts for whether parents in African immigrant families are from Africa’s multi-racial society with the longest history of institutionalized race-based discrimination, i.e. South Africa. Three additional findings subsequently emerge from the analyses. First, the interaction term for race and parental country of origin (i.e. South Africa) is positive. This indicates that the children of Black South Africans have a higher probability of non-enrollment than the children of White South Africans. Seemingly, pre-migration racial disparities in schooling among South Africans do not necessarily disappear after their migration to US. A second finding shown in Model 4 is that the disparity between the children of Black and White Africans still remains statistically insignificant after additional factors are controlled. However, the size of the estimated coefficient for the children of Black Africans suggests that they still have a residual enrollment disadvantage relative to the children of White Africans that is not explained by the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics accounted for in Model 4. As expected, the results also show that immigrant-specific attributes, such as generational status and English proficiency, are important determinants of non-enrollment among African immigrants’ children. Speaking English very well or speaking only English, for example, is significantly associated with a lower probability of non-enrollment. In addition, first-generation children are less likely to be non-enrolled than second-generation children after other factors are controlled.

While the association between generational status and non-enrollment described in Table 2 is instructive, it does not provide a useful basis for understanding the dynamics of racial disparities across immigrant generations. In Table 3, this concern is addressed by analyzing differences in the probability of non-enrollment between the children of Black and White Africans in both the first and second immigrant generations.

Table 3.

Coefficient estimates showing the factors associated with non-enrollment among first and second generation children of African immigrants

First generation Second generation
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4
Children of Black-Africans −0.16 −0.49 0.93** 1.11**
Children of White-Africans (Ref.) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00)
Age 0.71*** 0.71*** 0.78*** 0.77***
Males 0.47 0.45 0.23 0.24
English proficiency −0.99* −0.77 −0.83 −0.90
Constant −16.1*** −14.6*** −16.9*** −12.7***
Rho 0.61 0.57 0.47 0.48
Log Likelihood −255.3 −250.1 −315.5 −306.3
N 1,998 1,998 2,931 2,931
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Notes: Models 2 and 4 includes additional controls for differences in the educational attainment of household heads as well as differences in family structure, size, and income. Coefficients for the added controls are not shown in Table 3 but are available up request.

*

p<0.05,

**

p<0.01,

***

p<0.001

Among first generation children, no significant differences, conditional on race, are found in African families, after controlling for either child-level characteristics (i.e. age, gender, and language proficiency) in Model 1, or for both child and familial-level factors (e.g. family structure, size, and income) in Model 2. Apparently, race is not a significant predictor of non-enrollment differences among the foreign-born children of African immigrants. The direction of the coefficients in Models 1 and 2, however, suggests that first-generation Black children have a lower, though statistically insignificant, probability of non-enrollment than the children of White Africans. Thus the Black African disadvantage found in Table 2 is unlikely to be driven by the outcomes of African immigrants’ foreign-born children.

Consistent with segmented assimilation theory, however, Table 3 indicates that disadvantage associated with racial minority status is a more significant predictor of non-enrollment among the US-born or second-generation children of Africans. In Model 3, for example, second-generation children of Black Africans have a significantly higher probability of non-enrollment than their counterparts with White African parents after child-level factors are controlled. This finding is quite dissimilar to that found in the analogous comparison among first-generation children presented in Model 1. Instructively, the Black disadvantage in the second-generation is accentuated after familial socioeconomic factors (not shown) are controlled in Model 4. One interpretation of this finding is that familial socioeconomic characteristics, such as parental schooling and family incomes, provide some protection against even higher levels of non-enrollment among the US-born children of Black Africans. Without this familial buffer, Black immigrants’ children will likely have much worse enrollment outcomes than what is currently observed.

How do the first and second generation children of Black and White Africans compare relative to the children of US natives, i.e., third or higher generation children? Table 4 presents results from these comparisons, while also examining differences between Blacks and Whites in all three generational status groups. Estimates from Model 1, which also controls for children’s age and sex, suggest that among Blacks, both first and second generation children have comparatively lower probabilities of non-enrollment than third or higher generation children. A similar immigrant advantage is also found among Whites. Yet, the association between non-enrollment and generational status among Whites is quite different from that observed among Blacks. Among Whites, for example, the probability of non-enrollment declines between the first and second generations in Model 1, which is consistent with conventional assimilation theory, but subsequently increases between the second and third generations. The children of Black Africans, in contrast, systematically experience higher probabilities of non-enrollment, or declining enrollment outcomes, with increasing generational status. Consequently, children in Black families not only experience an apparent downward decline between the first and second generations, but by the third generation have the highest probability of non-enrollment among children in the sample (Model 1). Racial differences in enrollment trajectories across generations also result in important differences in the specific generations driving the immigrant advantage among children with Black or White parents. Among Blacks, the immigrant advantage is concentrated among first-generation children who, according the Model 1, also have more favorable outcomes than the children of native Whites while the analogous advantage among Whites, is driven by the outcomes of second rather than first generation children of immigrants.

Table 4.

Estimates showing differences in the probability of non-enrollment between the children of African immigrants and the children of US-natives

Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
Children in Black families
  First generation immigrants −0.67*** −0.90*** −1.22***
  Second generation immigrants 0.07 0.03 0.16
  Three-plus generation 0.51*** 0.14*** −0.05**
Children in White families
  First generation immigrants −0.43 −0.39 −0.13
  Second generation immigrants −0.78** −0.61* −0.37
  Three-plus generation (Ref.) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00)
Constant −20.9*** −19.2*** −19.4***
Rho 0.31 0.32 0.23
Log Likelihood −120,514 −118,259 −115,710
N 894,621 894,621 894,621
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Notes: Model 1 also includes controls for differences in age and sex differences among children. Model 2 includes all controls included in Model 1 plus controls for differences in family size and family incomes. Model 3, includes controls accounted for in Model 2 plus controls for differences in household heads’ educational attainment and family size.

*

p<0.05,

**

p<0.01,

***

p<0.001

Much of the disadvantage among Blacks reported in Model 1 appears to be driven by the structural and economic characteristics of families. As such, when additional controls for family structure and income are included in the analysis (Model 2) greater relative declines in non-enrollment are observed among children in Black than White families. First-generation children of Black immigrants also become the least likely to be non-enrolled in Model 2 after these factors are controlled. In short, had there been no racial differences in family incomes and structure, the best enrollment outcomes would possibly be found among Africans’ foreign-born children. Among Blacks, however, the increasing trajectory of non-enrollment as generation status increases continues to persist in Model 2 suggesting that the apparent downward assimilation among Blacks is robust to the influences of single-parent families and family income.

In Model 3, additional controls, such as family size and parental schooling, are include the full model, yielding even more disparate consequences for children in Black and White families. For Whites, the statistically significant immigrant advantage in the second generation completely disappears. Yet the advantage of first-generation children of Black immigrants, relative to all children, increases even further. Among the children of US natives, i.e. third or higher generation children, the difference in probability of non-enrollment between the biological children of Blacks and Whites is also completely reversed. Specifically, after all other factors are controlled in Model 4 the results show that among US natives, the children Blacks have a lower, not higher, probability of non-enrollment than the children of Whites. What this suggests is that the extremely high probabilities of non-enrollment observed among the children of native Blacks are likely to be the product of familial socioeconomic disadvantages more prevalent in the families of native Blacks than in Native White families.

The question of whether factors such as age at arrival and family structure are differentially associated with non-enrollment across both groups of immigrant families is addressed in Table 5. In order to capture the influence of age at arrival on the outcomes of first generation children, the analysis follows Rumbaut’s (2004) typology that distinguishes between several types of first generation children; children who arrived between ages 0 and 5, i.e., 1.75 generation children; children who arrived between ages 6 and 12, i.e., 1.5 generation children; and first generation children who arrived after age 121.

Table 5.

Coefficient estimates showing the factors associated with the probability of non-enrollment within Black and White African families

Black-Africans White Africans
Generational Status
  First generation children
    Arrived between age 0 and 5 −1.34* 0.12
    Arrived between age 6 and 12 −0.92* 1.20
    Arrived after age 12 −0.76* 0.72
  Second generation children (Ref.) (0.00) (0.00)
Age 0.71* 0.92**
Male 0.34 0.31
English proficient (yes=1) −0.81* −0.81
Household Characteristics
Single-parent family −0.45 −0.04
H. head is a college graduate −0.50 −1.11
Log of family size −0.41 −0.67
Log of family income −0.20* 0.06
Parental country of origin
  South-African parents 3.11* −1.31
    Other (Ref.) (0.00) (0.00)
Constant −11.88 −19.57*
Rho 0.45 0.68
Log Likelihood −395.7 −160.0
N 3,044 1,885
Open in a new tab
*

p<0.05,

**

p<0.01,

***

p<0.001

In terms of age at arrival, therefore, important differences are revealed between the two groups of children. Among the foreign-born children of Black Africans, age at arrival is negatively associated with the probability of non-enrollment. In particular, Black Africans’ children who arrived in the US at younger ages are systematically less likely to be non-enrolled than their counterparts who arrived when they were older. No such systematic pattern is observed among the children of White Africans. Table 5 also shows that while all foreign-born children of Black Africans, regardless of age at arrival, out-perform second generation children, the first-generation advantage is clearly driven by children who immigrated to US in early childhood. In general, these children, or 1.75 generation children, are more acculturated than other first-generation children, but generally differ from second generation children in their language attributes, educational attainment, and eventual occupational trajectories (Rumbaut 2004). After other factors are controlled, English proficiency is significantly associated with a lower probability of non-enrollment in Black but not White African families. However, this finding is not surprising given the greater variation in English language proficiency in Black than White African families captured in Table 1. At the same time, Table 5 also suggests that single-parent families, family size, and household head’s educational attainment do not have significant independence influences on non-enrollment in Black and White African families after other factors are controlled.

Significantly, two other factors are uniquely associated with non-enrollment in Black but not White African families. These are family incomes and whether or not parents were born in South Africa. Schooling variations, conditional on family incomes, are possibly more important in Black than White families, because average incomes are lower in the former than in the latter (Table 1). Yet pre-migration contexts are associated with even greater variations in non-enrollment in Black immigrant families that have not been found in previous studies on Black immigrant incorporation. Specifically, among Black African immigrants, children with parents from South Africa are significantly more disadvantaged, in terms of enrollment outcomes, than the children of non-South Africans. In other words, within the Black immigrant population, racial minority status is an even greater disadvantage among immigrants who were already disadvantaged because of their race prior to their migration to the US.

Discussion and Conclusions

A number of studies on the educational achievement of the children of immigrants now show that they generally outperform the children of natives (Driscoll 1999; Kao 2004). While the immigrant advantage has not been found among some immigrant groups (e.g., in Tillman, Guo, and Harris 2006), extensions of such comparison among Blacks have confirmed that the children of Africans outperform the children of Black natives. A number of implications have been derived from these findings. For example, commentators suggest that Black immigrants have unique cultural traits that help them to excel more than the children of Black natives (Rimer and Arenson 2004). Some scholars further argue that Black immigrants may possibly be America’s new model minority group (Freeman 2002). A major limitation of these perspectives is that they discount the real possibility that racial minority status can be a significant barrier to the educational incorporation of Black immigrants’ children. This study, therefore, contributes to literature by interrogating the significance of race in the educational incorporation of children of African immigrants. In addition, specific attention is given to the question of how these children compare relative to the children of Black and White natives. In the course of the analysis, four issues are clarified in ways that expand our understanding on how racial characteristics likely mediate differences in schooling incorporation among the children of Africans.

First, racial minority status is associated with a considerable degree of familial socioeconomic disadvantage among African immigrant families. On average, the children of Black Africans are more likely than the children of White Africans to live in families with less income and lower parental educational attainment. One implication of these disparities is that familial socioeconomic constraints to schooling are likely to be higher in Black than White African immigrant families. However, similar disparities are also found among Black and White native families. The association between racial minority status and familial socioeconomic disadvantage is therefore not sensitive to differences in parental immigration status. Among either immigrants or natives, children in Black families are therefore more likely to face socioeconomic constraints than children in White families.

Secondly, both Black and White African immigrants’ children are collectively less likely to be non-enrolled in school than the children of their US-born counterparts. This finding confirms the study’s first hypothesis that across race, the children of immigrants will have more favorable outcomes than the children of natives. Tellingly, the analysis suggests that the collective immigrant advantage among Blacks does not reflect a capability among children of Black immigrants to overcome barriers associated with racial minority status. Had this been the case, the children of Black immigrants would collectively have similar outcomes as the children of White immigrants, and these similarities would persist in all immigrant generations. Confirmation is also provided for the notion that some of the key barriers to enrollment underlying the relative disadvantage of Black immigrants are socioeconomic. As such, the statistically significant disadvantage of the children of Black Africans, relative to their counterparts with White African parents, disappears when parental educational attainment and family incomes are controlled.

Yet another clarification provided by the analysis is that the children of Black and White Africans experience different enrollment trajectories as generational status increases. As predicted by segmented assimilation theory, the disadvantage of the children of Black Africans is more pronounced among second than first generation children of immigrants. Furthermore, the collective disadvantage of the children of Black Africans appears to be driven by the high risks of non-enrollment among second-generation children. Unlike their counterparts with Black African parents, the children of White Africans experience more improved enrollment outcomes between the first two immigrant generations. Even when their likelihood of non-enrollment declined between the second and third generations, children in White families maintained a distinct enrollment advantage relative to their third generation counterparts in Black families. Unlike Blacks, therefore, White generation schooling declines are not necessarily accompanied by a racial schooling disadvantage, at least among children in the sample.

Racial inequalities among immigrant families are also driven by whether or not they originated from pre-migration contexts with significant racial socioeconomic inequalities. According to the analysis, Black immigrants from such contexts are generally disadvantaged in two ways. First, the lingering impacts of their pre-migration racial disadvantage seem to persist even after their arrival in the US. Consequently, their children experience a schooling disadvantage relative to the children of their White counterparts, both before and after their migration to the US. Secondly, the analysis suggests that children of Black immigrants with pre-migration exposure to racial disadvantages, experience even more difficulties in their educational incorporation than the children of other Black immigrants. Racial schooling disadvantages among Black immigrants therefore also vary among Black immigrant sub-populations. Yet the influence of prior racial disadvantages among Black immigrants point to critical long-term implications not addressed in the current analysis. In short, without appropriate interventions, the children of these immigrants will experience critical socioeconomic constraints as adults, since their opportunities for acquiring education as adolescents appear to be lower than those among other children living in the United States.

Footnotes

1

Rumbaut’s typology decomposes this group further into two additional sub-groups. However, in Table 5, the broader category of children who arrived after age 12 is used to ensure the availability of a sufficient number of older adolescents in the analyses for both White and Black African families.

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