Citation
Fletcher, Jason; Kim, Jinho; Nobles, Jenna; Ross, Stephen; & Shaorshadze, Irina (2019). The Effects of Foreign-Born Peers in US High Schools and Middle Schools. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series.Abstract
The multi-decade growth and spatial dispersion of immigrant families in the United States has shiftedthe composition of US schools, reshaping the group of peers with whom students age through adolescence.US-born students are more likely to have foreign-born peers and foreign-born students are more likelyto be educated outside of enclaves. This study examines the short-term and long-term impact of beingeducated with immigrant peers, for both US-born and foreign-born students. We leverage a quasi-experimentalresearch design that uses across-grade, within-school variation in cohort composition for students inthe Add Health study. We describe effects on a broad set of education, social, and health outcomes.For US-born students, we find little evidence that having immigrant peers affects a wide array of outcomes,either in adolescence or in adulthood. For foreign-born students, attending school with other immigrantstudents is protective against risky health behaviors and social isolation, relative to native born students.However, foreign-born students’ language skills measured with Picture-Vocabulary Test scores arenegatively affected by attending school with a larger share of other immigrant students. The negativeeffect on vocabulary scores persists through young adulthood but does not translate into reductionsin most longer-run socioeconomic outcomes, including earnings or the economic status of their residential neighborhoods.URL
https://doi.org/10.3386/w26491Reference Type
Journal ArticleJournal Title
National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper SeriesAuthor(s)
Fletcher, JasonKim, Jinho
Nobles, Jenna
Ross, Stephen
Shaorshadze, Irina