The Cultural Capital of Immigrant Families and The Impact on Student Performance: Evidence from Germany

• Alina BOTEZAT ^[1]
  1. [1] Institutul de Cercetari Economice şi Sociale Gheorghe Zane (ICES)
• Localización: Estudios Economicos Regionales y Sectoriales : EERS: Regional and sectoral economic studies : RSES, ISSN 1578-4460, Vol. 11, Nº. 2, 2011, págs. 59-72
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The aim of this paper is twofold. It intends to examine to what extent the school performance of immigrant students depends on their cultural background as well as to explain the link between the intergenerational transfer of cultural capital and the educational achievement. Using PISA data 2003 for Germany we examine the validity of cultural reproduction and cultural mobility theories in the case of immigrant students. We show that the education of parents has a higher positive impact on the student performance only in the case of German students. Parental education has no effect on school achievement of immigrants, unless the mother has a low level of education. The educational resources influence to a greater extent the school performance of immigrants. The possession of cultural resources is a strong predictor for educational achievement only for German students