Study: Legalization Benefits Educational Achievement of Immigrants

The children of undocumented immigrants struggle to succeed academically, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California—Irvine.

Researchers used data from a telephone survey in Los Angeles to identify correlations between the educational achievements of different immigrant groups and the status of individuals’ entry, residency, and naturalization. They found an achievement gap among the children of undocumented Mexican immigrants–and evidence that providing paths to legal residency would improve academic performance.

“Particularly notable is that legalization per se appears to add almost a year-and-a-quarter to the schooling premium associated with the various mixed-status groups containing mothers who are legal permanent residents,” reads the report. “That mothers’ unauthorized status in particular hampers second-generation attainment (i.e., education) reinforces the idea that unauthorized entry and the process of navigating pathways to legalization retards the pace of incorporation in the Mexican immigrant group in the United States.”

In the study, the researchers weighed in on immigration policy based on their results.

“The results also indicate the crucial importance of public policies that provide opportunities for legalization,” they wrote. “The fact especially that the force of legal status appears to exert its own positive effect on second generation education implies that the failure to provide pathways to legalization risks the development of an expanding underclass of unauthorized entrants.”

The crux of the project is the notion of naturalization, which the authors characterize as “perhaps the bedrock issue in public policy debates about immigration.” The authors connect the slow pace at which Mexican immigrants have historically attained “full membership” in American culture to the gap in academic achievement, and consider explanations for that slow naturalization process.

In particular, they highlight a phenomenon known as “delayed incorporation,” in which individuals with unauthorized residency can slow down the assimilation of their wider immigrant communities due to the fact that they expect their stay to be terminated at some point.

The research is relevant to current political developments. The DREAM Act is a legislative proposal which would provide paths to citizenship through education or military service. This summer, California passed a state version of the law.

“Unauthorized entrants who have not been able (or have not had the opportunity) to legalize remain mired in disadvantage, as do their children,” the researchers wrote.

Jon Christian is a staff writer with Campus Progress. Follow him on Twitter @Jon_Christian.

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