Making it in America: High School and GED Completion among Immigrant Youth

Krista Perreira, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Kathleen Mullan Harris, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Dohoon Lee, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we find that high school completion decreases across immigrant generations and comes to resemble completion rates within the dominant native-born population. Among immigrants, those of Hispanic origin are more at risk of dropping out than immigrants of other ethnic heritages. Asian immigrants are the least likely to drop out. Immigrants who do drop out are much less likely than their 2nd and 3rd generation counterparts to subsequently complete a GED. Adjustments for individual, family, and neighborhood-level covariates diminish differences between ethnic groups but magnify differences between immigrant generations.