Intergenerational Mobility of Second Generation Migrants from the Middle East to the United States

One of the key issues in the immigration debate is the extent to which second generation immigrants (native born, but to immigrant parents) are able to assimilate in terms of education and income. Many of these studies have focused on the difficulties and educational achievement gap faced by 2nd generation immigrants from the Middle East (MENA) living in Europe. My study considers 2nd generation immigrants from the MENA living in the United States. These two groups originate in the same place, but could not be more different in terms of their educational outcomes. Whereas 2nd generation MENA migrants in Europe tend to have less education than their native peers, MENA migrants in the US have higher levels of education and are more likely to have undergraduate and graduate degrees. In this study I estimate several models examining the determinants of education. I find that for the overall US population, parents' education, parents' income, and residence in an ethnic enclave all have positive effects on educational achievement. The impact of parents' education and income is no different for MENA migrants, suggesting that the education premium accruing to this group is likely to persist. However, any advantage of living in an ethnic enclave appears to disappear for MENA migrants, suggesting that these enclaves are failing to live up to their potential as incubators of immigrant human capital.