| dc.description.abstract | Studies on immigrant incorporation tend to exclusively focus on first-generation immigrants. Additionally, the context of reception immigrant’s experience their incorporation within has typically been dichotomized in prior research as either a traditional migrant gateway or as a newly emerging migrant destination. Using data from the 2021 ACS, this paper expands on both concepts of mobility and context by focusing on second-generation Hispanic youth’s high school completion rates, compared to delayed completion or discontinued schooling, and their educational mobility trajectories, relative to their immigrant parents across various contextual factors. Contextual factors of interest include minimum wage, unemployment rates, income per capita, fair-market rent, state spending on education per pupil, and proportion of the population in the immigrant community. Results show the importance of individual-level factors such as gender, English proficiency, and becoming a parent on educational attainment and mobility. More importantly, two contextual variables of overarching importance, the proportion of the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) population in the immigrant community and state spending on education per pupil, were both consistently significant predictors of high school completion and upward educational mobility. I argue for adding the educational system to the conceptualization of contexts of reception and advocate for continued advancement in operationalizing context of reception in more nuanced ways beyond the dichotomy relied on in prior research. | |
