What Holds Back the Second Generation? The Intergenerational Transmission of Language Human Capital Among Immigrants

Abstract

In 2000 Census microdata, various outcomes of second-generation immigrants are related to their parents' age at arrival to the United States, and in particular whether that age fell within the "critical period" of language acquisition. We interpret this as an effect of the parent's English-language skills and construct an instrumental variable for parental English proficiency. Estimates of the effect of parent's English-speaking proficiency using two-stage least squares yield significant, positive results for children's English-speaking proficiency and preschool attendance, and significant, negative results for dropping out of high school and being below age-appropriate grade. (JEL J13, J24, J62).

Figure 1

English-Speaking Ability by Age at Arrival for Immigrant Parents Notes: Data are from the 2000 IPUMS. Sample size is 164,559 (composed of children who were born in the U.S., currently aged 5–17, living with at least one biological parent who immigrated to the U.S. before age 18 and is currently aged 25–55, and with nonmissing language variable for both child and parent). In Panel A, displayed for each age at arrival is the mean English–speaking ability for the immigrant parent. In Panel B, displayed for each age at arrival is the difference in mean English–speaking ability between immigrant parents from non–English–speaking countries and immigrant parents from English–speaking countries. Means are weighted by child–level IPUMS weights, and regression–adjusted for age, race, Hispanic and sex dummies for parent and age and sex dummies for child. The race categories used were White, Black, Asian & Pacific Islander, Multiracial and Other. The English ordinal measure is defined as: 0 = no English, 1 = not well, 2 = well and 3 = very well.

Figure 2

Child's English-Speaking Ability by Immigrant Parent's Age at Arrival and Child's Age Notes: Data are from the 2000 IPUMS. Sample consists of children who were born in the U.S., currently aged 5–17, living with at least one biological parent who immigrated to the U.S. before age 18 and is currently aged 25–55, and with nonmissing language variable for both child and parent. Displayed for each parental age at arrival is the difference in mean English–speaking ability between between children with parents from non–English–speaking countries and children with parents from English–speaking countries. Means are weighted by child–level IPUMS weights, and regression–adjusted for age, race, Hispanic and sex dummies for parent and age and sex dummies for child. The race categories used were White, Black, Asian & Pacific Islander, Multiracial and Other. The English ordinal measure is defined as: 0 = no English, 1 = not well, 2 = well and 3 = very well.

Figure 3

Effect of Parental English on Child's English by Child's Age Notes: The square–marker line shows the OLS coefficient for parental English for each child age. The triangle–marker line shows the 2SLS coefficient for parental English for each child age. The dotted lines show the 95% confidence interval bands for the OLS and 2SLS estimates. Each coefficient comes from a separate regression estimated using 2000 PUMS data that also contains dummies for the age at arrival, country of birth, age, sex, race and Hispanic status of the parent who is the childhood immigrant, and dummies for age and sex of the child. The identifying instruments for the 2SLS estimates are interactions between dummies for parental age at arrival and dummy for parent being born in a non–English–speaking country.

Figure 4

Kernel Density Estimates of ASVAB Scores by Home Language Notes: Data are from the NLSY–1979. Sample size is 751 (composed of children who were born in the U.S. with at least one foreign–born parent and with nonmissing ASVAB scores). Displayed in each panel is the kernel density estimate for the indicated ASVAB subtest, decomposed by whether a foreign language was spoken at the respondent's childhood home (solid line for yes, dashed line for no). The residualized ASVAB scores are computed from a regression of the raw score on quadratics in the highest grade completed for each parent, dummies if the parental education variables are missing, and dummies for Black and year of birth. The mean differences in ASVAB subtests between the two groups (measured by including the foreign–language–at–home indicator variable in the regression) in Panels A through D have p–values of 0.059, 0.120, 0.139, and 0.783, respectively.