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Diversity in Schools: Immigrants and the Educational Performance of U.S. Born Students

Author

Listed:
  • David N. Figlio
  • Paola Giuliano
  • Riccardo Marchingiglio
  • Umut Özek
  • Paola Sapienza

Abstract

We study the effect of exposure to immigrants on the educational outcomes of US-born students, using a unique dataset combining population-level birth and school records from Florida. This research question is complicated by substantial school selection of US-born students, especially among White and comparatively affluent students, in response to the presence of immigrant students in the school. We propose a new identification strategy to partial out the unobserved non-random selection into schools, and find that the presence of immigrant students has a positive effect on the academic achievement of US-born students, especially for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Moreover, the presence of immigrants does not affect negatively the performance of affluent US-born students, who typically show a higher academic achievement compared to immigrant students. We provide suggestive evidence on potential channels.

Suggested Citation

  • David N. Figlio & Paola Giuliano & Riccardo Marchingiglio & Umut Özek & Paola Sapienza, 2021. "Diversity in Schools: Immigrants and the Educational Performance of U.S. Born Students," NBER Working Papers 28596, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28596
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    Cited by:

    1. Morales, Camila, 2022. "Do refugee students affect the academic achievement of peers? Evidence from a large urban school district," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    2. Çakır, Selcen & Erbay, Elif & Kirdar, Murat Güray, 2021. "Syrian Refugees and Human Capital Accumulation of Native Children in Turkey," IZA Discussion Papers 14972, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Sáenz Guillén Leyre, 2024. "¿Menos es Siempre Más?: Efectos del tamaño del aula en el rendimiento educativo en el contexto de la Transición Demográfica en Argentina," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4761, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    4. Leah Boustan & Mathias Fjællegaard Jensen & Ran Abramitzky & Elisa Jácome & Alan Manning & Santiago Pérez & Analysia Watley & Adrian Adermon & Jaime Arellano-Bover & Olof Åslund & Marie Connolly & Nat, 2025. "Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants in 15 Destination Countries," NBER Working Papers 33558, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Cortina Toro,Magdalena & Jimenez,Juan Miguel & Rozo Villarraga,Sandra Viviana, 2024. "Little Nomads : Economic and Social Impacts of Migration on Children," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10686, The World Bank.
    6. Bietenbeck, Jan & Collins, Matthew & Lundborg, Petter & Majlesi, Kaveh, 2025. "Exposure to Inequality, Human Capital Investment, and Labor Market Outcome," IZA Discussion Papers 18289, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Assaad, Ragui & Ginn, Thomas & Saleh, Mohamed, 2023. "Refugees and the education of host populations: Evidence from the Syrian inflow to Jordan," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    8. Chuard, Caroline & Aerne, Annatina & Eugster, Beatrix & Hodler, Roland, 2025. "Ethnic clustering in schools and early career outcomes," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    9. Naomi Friedman-Sokuler & Claudia Senik, 2025. "From pink collar to lab coat: cultural persistence and diffusion of socialist gender norms," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 38(1), pages 1-34, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

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