Education and Immigration

Education is a crucially important social institution, closelycorrelated with wealth, occupational prestige, psychologicalwell-being, and health outcomes. Moreover, for children ofimmigrants - who account for almost one in four school-agedchildren in the U.S. - it is the primary means through whichthey become incorporated into American society.
This insightful new book explores the educational outcomes ofpost-1965 immigrants and their children. Tracing the historicalcontext and key contemporary scholarship on immigration, theauthors examine issues such as structural versus cultural theoriesof education stratification, the overlap of immigrant status withrace and ethnicity, and the role of language in educationaloutcomes. Throughout, the authors pay attention to the greatdiversity among immigrants: some arrive with PhDs to work asresearch professors, while others arrive with a primary schooleducation and no English skills to work as migrant laborers. Asimmigrants come from an ever-increasing array of races,ethnicities, and national origins, immigrant assimilation is morecomplex than ever before, and education is central to theiradaptation to American society.
Shedding light on often misunderstood topics, this book will beinvaluable for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate-levelcourses in sociology of education, immigration, and race andethnicity.