Children of New Immigrants in Taiwan: Educational Mobility in Adolescence

The academic achievement of children of new immigrants in Taiwan is well explored in the extant literature. It is generally found that children of Southeast Asian mothers are more disadvantaged than children of mainland Chinese mothers. However, other aspects of educational mobility such as the type of high school a student attend, which has important implications for future occupational status in the labour market as the Taiwanese educational system begins to sort students into either a general or vocational track when they reach high school, are underinvestigated in the literature. Using the Taiwan Upper Secondary Education Database, this study shows that while children of mainland Chinese mothers do not differ significantly from students with native parents in class ranking, GPA, public and general high school attendance, and expected educational attainment, children of Southeast Asian mothers are indeed disadvantaged. Further analysis of Southeast Asian subgroups reveals that children of Thai mothers are the most advantaged whereas children of Vietnamese and Indonesian mothers are the most disadvantaged. An important factor contributing to the disadvantage of children of Southeast Asian mothers is family background, which is particularly salient to children of Vietnamese and Indonesian mothers. Due to this heterogeneity, policymakers and educators may need to understand the specific needs of each subgroup when designing educational programs.