Volume 38 - Article 23 | Pages 577–618  

Adolescents' educational aspirations and ethnic background: The case of students of African and Latin American migrant origins in Spain

By Carlos J. Gil-Hernández, Pablo Gracia

Abstract

Background: Minority students were found to have high educational aspirations, considering their background characteristics. This finding is often attributed to 'migrant optimism.' Yet, whether socioeconomic, educational, or demographic differences between and within ethnic groups mediate and/or moderate students' educational aspirations remains an inconclusive question.

Objective: This study investigates the educational aspirations of children of African and Latin American migrants in Spain, looking at four critical factors: (1) family background, (2) educational performance, (3) years lived in Spain, and (4) language used at home.

Methods: Data comes from the 2010 General Evaluation of Educational Diagnostic (GEED) on lower-secondary students aged 14 (n = 19,293), on average. Multivariate logistic models are applied using mediation and moderation analyses.

Results: Results show that (1) minority students have higher college aspirations than students of Spanish origin after accounting for parental socioeconomic status and educational performance; (2) ethnic differentials in aspirations – especially for pupils with Latin American origin – are concentrated among low-performing and disadvantaged students; (3) recent arrival in Spain is not significantly associated with differences in educational aspirations within minority groups; (4) speaking Spanish at home does not lead to differences in aspirations for pupils of African origin.

Conclusions: Migrant optimism, as opposed to family language use and years of contact with the Spanish culture and society, seems to be an important factor for the high (net) educational aspirations of students from African and Latin American backgrounds.

Contribution: The article provides new evidence on ethnic heterogeneity in educational aspirations, being the first that uses representative data from the whole Spanish educational system.

Author’s Affiliation

• Carlos J. Gil-Hernández - European University Institute, Italy EMAIL
• Pablo Gracia - Trinity College Dublin, Ireland EMAIL

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

Sociodemographic variation in family structures and geographic proximity between adult children and parents in Europe
Volume 52 - Article 25    | Keywords: family structure, grandparents, kinship, multigenerational family structures, social stratification

Examining the relationships between education, coresidential unions, and the fertility gap by simulating the reproductive life courses of Dutch women
Volume 52 - Article 24    | Keywords: contraception, education, fertility, GGS, life course, LISS, microsimulation, Netherlands, physiology, unions

Uncovering what matters: Family life-course aspects and personal wealth in late working age
Volume 52 - Article 22    | Keywords: family dynamics, feature selection, life course, social stratification, wealth

Demographic convergence in marriage timing: Intersecting gender and educational expansion
Volume 52 - Article 14    | Keywords: age at marriage, convergence, cross-country, education, gender, union formation

Left behind single in the partnering market? Entry into cohabiting unions by women and men with low educational attainment across regions of Europe, cohorts 1960 to 1985
Volume 51 - Article 43    | Keywords: cohabitation, education, Europe, European Social Survey, event history analysis, logistic regression, marginalization, partner selection, singlehood, union formation