The effect of parents’ education and income on the educational attainment of childhood immigrants

This paper asks to what extent parents’ education and income are associated with the educational attainment of childhood immigrants who arrived in Canada at age 17 or younger. Childhood immigrants aged 25 to 44 in the 2016 Census were linked to the Longitudinal Immigration Database to determine their parents’ education level and income. The results show that both fathers’ and mothers’ education had a substantial and positive effect on the likelihood of childhood immigrants completing a bachelor’s degree or higher. If both parents had a bachelor’s degree or higher, the effect was almost doubled, controlling for other background variables. There was some variation by source region. The effect of parents’ education was weaker for families from East Asia and Southeast Asia than for those from Europe and English-speaking developed countries, indicating that parental education mattered more for the latter groups. When educational attainment was broadened to include graduation with a trades or college credential as well as a bachelor’s degree or higher, the effect of parents’ education was much weaker, and the group difference in educational attainment became small. Childhood immigrants are more likely to pursue a bachelor’s degree or higher than a trades or college certification, while the opposite is true for children with Canadian-born parents. This tendency among immigrant families to prefer a bachelor’s degree or higher also varied substantially by source region. After parental education and other variables were controlled for, family income during the first five years after entry to Canada had only a small effect on the child’s educational attainment. The conclusion includes a discussion of the implications of the results and the mechanisms through which these effects occur.