The Generation 2.5 Curse?

Why children of immigrant and native intermarriages have worse outcomes than children of co-ethnic marriages.

Abstract: Is having one native-born parent an advantage for the child of an immigrant? Generation 2.5 individuals (one foreign born and one native born parent) should have greater access to native networks, face less discrimination, and have better bicultural awareness than generation 2.0 (both parents foreign born). Despite these seeming advantages, generation 2.5 often have worse educational outcomes than their generation 2.0 peers. We utilize propensity score matching to evaluate differences in educational outcomes between these two groups. We estimate that on average, generation 2.5 have nearly half a year less education than their generation 2.0 counterparts despite having better educated parents on average. A number of explanations for this are explored, with a higher degree of bilingualism for generation 2.0, foreign-born parents investing more in children's education, and access to highly skilled immigrant networks being the most promising explanations.