The Timing of Paternal Migration and Children’s Educational Aspirations

Sam Hyun Yoo, Arizona State University

The impact of parental migration on children’s educational trajectories varies by many factors. Previous research has attended to the economic returns to migration for children left in origin communities. But migration may also influence children’s own expectations regardless of the economic success of their migrant parents. Here we propose that the timing of parental migration and the timing of parental return migration alter the impact on children’s own educational aspirations and engagement in schooling. This paper employs data from the longitudinal Mexican Family Life Survey to examine whether timing of parental migration has differentials effects of migration on children’s own aspiration and school enrollment. The results reveal that children age 11-14 whose father is currently away in the United States are significantly less likely to aspire to a college education. But we do not observe this suppression of educational aspirations among children whose fathers have returned from the United States.