Achievement in education and income among young Asian and Hispanic Americans

This dissertation examines the early achievements in education and income among Asian and Hispanic young adults who received at least secondary schooling in the United States. Samples of the study are drawn from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. Several findings from the dissertation are worth highlighting. First, eight years after high school, some groups are able to surpass whites in both education and income while some others lag behind. Measures from assimilation theory, human capital theory, and social capital theory all significantly affect the socioeconomic status of an individual. Overall, family background contributes to most of the variations in educational attainment. Human capital investment in higher education and working experiences explain most of income differences between minority groups and whites. Second, the study confirms the high economic payoffs of four-year college education while questions the payoffs of two-year college education. Four-year college education generates similar economic rewards to Asian and Hispanic young adults as to whites. Third, both first and second generation young adults have higher income than their third or higher generation counterparts. Immigrant children or children of immigrants who receive at least secondary schooling in the United States do not seem to suffer any disadvantage in income at a given education level. Fourth, the ethnic composition and acculturation level of the school where the respondents attended at eighth grade have significant impacts on the educational attainment while no effect on income net of an individual's own race/ethnicity or acculturation background. Finally, the findings support the "strategic adaptation" hypothesis that educational attainment is the result of occupational aspirations of youth. Findings from this dissertation also suggest that the effects of "strategic adaptation approach" may be stronger among some groups while weaker among others. This dissertation concludes that four-year college education appears to be one of the major channels to higher income for immigrant minority groups. There is no obvious evidence suggesting that the quality of recent immigrants and immigrant children from Asia and Latin America is lower than that of whites.