Samuel H. Fishman, Postdoctoral Associate, Sociology Department, Duke University, presents, "Education and Income Mobility among the Children of Asian American Immigrants"

Demography of Health and Aging Seminar

Samuel H.  Fishman, Postdoctoral Associate, Sociology Department, Duke University, presents, "Education and Income Mobility among the Children of Asian American Immigrants"

Recent qualitative research argues that Asian Americans’ educational attainments are not predicated on their parent’s education, diverging from status attainment theory. Using data from two nationally representative studies, the analysis reveals extremely high levels of offspring education and no association with parents’ education among Chinese, Indian, Korean, and Vietnamese immigrants. High adolescent educational expectations and parental pressure regardless of parental education partially account for the lack of association. In turn, this education pattern translates into high levels of income for this population. In contrast, Whites, Blacks, Mexican Americans, and later generation Asian Americans’ education and income patterns are generally consistent with status attainment theory. These results demonstrate that educational attainment among certain Asian American populations diverges from classic stratification models and indicate the need for more detailed explorations to further contextualize these patterns. 

Zoom Seminar. Please contact laura.satterfield@duke.edu to obtain Seminar Link