Horizontal Advantage: Choice of Postsecondary Field of Study Among Children of Immigrants

Abstract

Educational expansion has raised the influence of sorting across postsec-ond ary educational fields on children’s future life chances. Yet, little is known about horizontal ethnic stratification in the choice of field of study among children of immigrant parents, whose parents often have moderate absolute levels of education relative to native-born parents but tend to be positively selected on education relative to non-mi grants in the origin country. Using rich administrative data from Norway, we study the educational careers of immigrant descendants relative to the careers of children of native-born parents. Our results show that children of immigrants from non-European countries have a higher likelihood of entering higher education and enrolling in high-pay ing fields of study compared with children of natives, despite having poorer school grades and dis ad van taged fam ily back grounds. However, immi grant par ents’ pos i­ tive selectivity provides limited insight into why children of immigrants exhibit high ambitions later in their postsecondary educational careers. These findings document a persistent pattern of horizontal ethnic advantage in postsecondary education in which ambitious children of immigrants are more likely to enter into more prestigious and eco-nom ically rewarding fields of study than their fellow students with native-born parents.