How Do Coethnic Communities and Host Countries Matter for Education? Evidence from the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

Rennie Lee, University of California, Los Angeles

This paper examines whether living in a coethnic community, a small neighborhood of people from the same national origin group living closely together, affects the educational attainment of immigrants’ children in the US, Canada, and the UK. This paper finds that the average education of coethnic communities is positively associated with the educational attainment of immigrant children and native-born children of immigrants in all three countries. Additionally, this positive effect varies by generational status and host country policies. Although educated coethnic communities increase educational attainment for immigrant children and native-born children of immigrants in the three countries, the positive effect is stronger for immigrant children than for native-born children of immigrants in Canada and the UK. By contrast, the positive effect of the coethnic community on educational attainment in the US is the same regardless of generation status.