Undermatched? School-Based Linguistic Status, College Going, and the Immigrant Advantage

Abstract

Considerable research investigates the immigrant advantage, yet little work examines the influence of school-based linguistic status. Contradictory patterns exist: research identifies both an immigrant advantage and a language minority disadvantage in college going. Although not all immigrant youth are language minorities, many do speak a language other than English. Educators in U.S. schools group immigrant students into three discrete linguistic categories: native English speakers, language minorities not in ESL, and English learner (EL) students. We employ multivariate methods to investigate immigrant college going by linguistic status using the <i>Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002</i>. Results suggest an immigrant advantage <i>only</i> among the two immigrant groups not in ESL, and evidence of <i>undermatching</i>-wherein students choose post-secondary options for which they are over prepared-among high achieving EL students. Expanded understanding of the immigrant advantage might improve EL students' pathways into college, stemming this loss of human capital.