– The authors find some evidence that immigration adversely affects whether U.S.-born women who graduated from college majored in a science or engineering field. There is little evidence of negative effects among U.S.-born men.
– Women were more likely to major in education and in psychology as the immigrant share while in college increased.
– The probability that men earned an advanced degree is negatively related to the immigrant share
while in college, and the probability among women is positively related to the immigrant share
while in high school.
– The across-states instrumental variable (IV) results indicate that a higher immigrant share while in college increases the probability that female S&E majors earn an advanced degree. The IV results thus suggest that women with higher ability in S&E, as signaled by earning an advanced degree, may be the ones who remain S&E majors as a result of immigration.
– The immigrant share in college has a more adverse effect than the immigrant share in high
school on whether women major in S&E and on whether they ultimately work in S&E.
– Immigration may raise the bar in STEM fields, increase the selectivity of U.S. natives into S&E majors, and ultimately have a positive effect on innovation. Looking at whether immigration affects selectivity into S&E majors using data with a better measure of ability is an important area for future research.
* Immigration negatively impacts the odds that women will major in STEM
2013 - Does Immigration Affect whether U.S. Natives Major in Science and Engineering?
The author used the Student/Institution Engagement Model. The Student/Institution Engagement Model relates students’ demographics, pre-college, environmental pull, and college factors to students’ decisions to attend college, their experiences, and degree attainment.
This study utilized the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, which is a nationally representative data set. The study includes information on 24,599 eighth-graders from 1,052 high schools across the United States. This study did follow-ups on tracking this cohort in 1990, 1992, 1994, and 2000. Following all these follow-ups, the total final sample of participants included 12,144 individuals. The research in this study focused on African-American. This study’s sample consists of 1176 African American students.
The three dependent variables in the study were: 1. Entered post-secondary education (PSE) after high school; this analysis compared students who entered PSE with students who did not enter PSE. 2. Majored in STEM fields; this analysis included only those students who had entered PSE, and compared those who majored in STEM with those who had a non-STEM major. 3. Post-secondary degree attainment in STEM, this analysis included only those students who had attained an associates degree or higher, and compared those who had attained a PSE STEM degree with those who had attained a PSE non-STEM degree.
The independent variables used in this study were a combination of single (nominal, ordinal, scale, and dummy) variables and composite variables. Single item measures included parent expectation, self-expectation, teacher relations, high school program type, academic rigor, gender, family SES, mother and father degree attainment, school urbanity, first generation students, school district type, and family composition. The composite variables in this study included academic self-concept, peer relations, and parent involvement.
Academic rigor was measured by whether the student had ever been in an Advanced Placement (AP), gifted, or Honors program.