Educational Profile

Educational attainment:

  • Many immigrants age 25 and older, who have arrived in the US within the last five years, fall into either end of the educational attainment spectrum: While 41% have a bachelor’s degree or higher, 23% don’t have a high school diploma from their home country. (Pew Research Institute, Today’s Newly Arrived Immigrants are the Best-Educated Ever, 2015)
  • Foreign-born young adults 19-24 years old represent 23% of US residents who haven’t earned a high school diploma or equivalent, while foreign-born adults age 25 and up comprise 37% of the US population without a high school diploma or equivalent. (Migration Policy Institute, Immigrants and WIOA Services Fact Sheet, 2015)
  • Nearly 30% of about 1,800 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients surveyed in 2015 completed a two-year or four-year college degree. Since DACA implementation in 2012, 30% of respondents started postsecondary education for the first time, while another 30% returned to school. 31% of survey respondents reported having increased access to scholarships and financial aid. (United We Dream, A Portrait of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Recipients: Challenges and Opportunities Three Years Later, 2015)
  • By June of 2015, more than 680,000 people had obtained Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status. (Migration Policy Institute, Immigrants and WIOA Services Fact Sheet, 2015)
  • By January 2015, at least 20 states had enacted laws or policies that allow DACA recipients to pay in-state tuition. (Migration Policy Institute, Lessons from the Local Level: DACA’s Implementation and Impact on Education and Training Success, January 2015)
  • As of 2006, more than half (53.4 percent) of the 6.1 million college-educated immigrants age 25 and older obtained their education prior to migration, so that the U.S. benefits from schooling received and paid for elsewhere. (Uneven Progress: The Employment Pathways of Skilled Immigrants in the United States, Migration Policy Institute, 2008)
  • About one in three immigrants is a person with either a U.S. or foreign college degree. (Migration Policy Institute’s Migration Information Source) 
  • While immigrant undergraduates complete college at the same rate as the overall student population, they are likely to earn certificates or associate’s degrees rather than bachelor’s degrees. Five years after entering college in 1995, 27% of all immigrant students and 32% of permanent residents had attained an associate’s degree or certificate, compared with 23% of all undergraduates. However, only 23% of all immigrant students and 19% of permanent residents had earned a bachelor’s degree, compared with 30% of all undergraduates. (1996-2001 Beginning Post-secondary Student Longitudinal Study, BPS, National Center for Education Statistics,2001, as cited in Opening the Door to the American Dream: Increasing Higher Education Access and Success for Immigrants, Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2007) 
  • In 2008, there were 31.9 million immigrants age 25 and older. Of those, 27.1% had a bachelor’s degree or higher, while 32.5% lacked a high school diploma. Among the 168.2 million native-born adults age 25 and older, 27.8% had a bachelor’s degree or higher, and only 11.7% did not have a high school diploma. (Census Bureau’s American FactFinder, Migration Policy Institute’s Migration Information Source)

 Naturalized citizens vs. non-citizens

  • Immigrants age 25 and older who are not U.S. citizens have lower levels of educational attainment than the American population as a whole. Almost two-thirds (63%) of these immigrants have no more than a high school education, compared with 46% of the overall U.S. population. However, naturalized citizens, are more likely than the overall U.S. population to have completed a bachelor’s degree or higher (32% vs. 27%) (U.S. Census Bureau 2005a, American Community Survey, as cited in Opening the Door to the American Dream: Increasing Higher Education Access and Success for Immigrants, Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2007) 
  • Among young people age 18-24, immigrants were only slightly less likely than their native-born peers to be enrolled in college (27% vs. 36%). However, 47% of naturalized citizens in this group were enrolled in college, compared to only 22% of non-citizens enrolled in college, “suggesting that citizenship plays a crucial, albeit not fully understood, role in providing access to higher education.” (U.S. Census Bureau 2005b, American Community Survey, as cited in Opening the Door to the American Dream: Increasing Higher Education Access and Success for Immigrants, Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2007) 

 Age

  • Immigrants who enter the United States after age 45 tend to have the lowest level of educational attainment of any immigrant group, while those who enter the country before age 13 have the highest level of educational attainment and compare favorably with native-born Americans. In the13-44 age group, those who arrive between the ages of 13 and 19 have the lowest rates of educational attainment, “suggesting that immigrating during the late teenage years places young people at a particular educational disadvantage.” (Educational Attainment: Analysis by Immigrant Generation, Institute for the Study of Labor, 2003, as cited in Opening the Door to the American Dream: Increasing Higher Education Access and Success for Immigrants, Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2007) 

Region of origin

  • When comparing immigrants by region of origin, immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean have the least education, with three-quarters (74%) never attending college, and almost half (44%) not graduating from high school. Immigrants from Africa and Asia are the best-educated immigrant groups, with 44% and 48% respectively holding a bachelor’s degrees or higher. (U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2005, as cited in Opening the Door to the American Dream: Increasing Higher Education Access and Success for Immigrants, Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2007) 

Community college enrollment

  • Community colleges enroll almost half of all U.S. undergraduates, or 6.5 million students. One-quarter (24%) of these students come from an immigrant background. (Profile of undergraduates in U.S. postsecondary education institutions 2003-04 with a special analysis of community college students, National Center for Education Statistics, 2006, as cited in The Vital Role of Community Colleges in the Education and Integration of Immigrants, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees,2008)
  • Immigrant students have higher unmet financial need than the average undergraduate and are more likely to enroll in community colleges or private profit institutions. Immigrants were 14% more likely than the general undergraduate population to be enrolled in public two-year institutions and private for-profit institutions. More than half (55%) of all immigrant undergraduates and 59% of legal permanent residents were enrolled in these types of institutions in 2003-04. (2003-04 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, NPSAS, National Center for Education Statistics, 2004, as cited in Opening the Door to the American Dream: Increasing Higher Education Access and Success for Immigrants, Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2007) 
  • Immigrant students who entered college as freshman in 1995 were somewhat more likely than the overall undergraduate population to have transferred from a two-year college or less school to a four-year school by 2001. (1996-2001 Beginning Post-secondary Student Longitudinal Study, BPS, National Center for Education Statistics,2001, as cited in Opening the Door to the American Dream: Increasing Higher Education Access and Success for Immigrants, Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2007)

English as a Second Language (ESL)

The following information on ESL programs and students at community colleges is drawn from a two-year study, Passing the Torch: Strategies for Innovation in Community College ESL by Forrest P. Chisman and JoAnn Crandall (Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy, 2007). The authors note that the study draws upon their extensive knowledge of and exposure to dozens of community colleges and ESL programs through other studies, but is based primarily on an in-depth examination of the innovative instructional and professional development practices of adult ESL programs at five community colleges, identified by ESL experts and their peers as exemplary in their provision of adult ESL service. The five colleges are: Bunker Hill Community College, Charlestown, MA; The City College of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; The College of Lake County, Grayslake, IL, Seminole Community College, Sanford, FL; and Yakima Valley Community College, Yakima, WA.

  • ESL instruction for adults is the largest and fastest growing component of America’s adult education system—representing more than 40 percent of enrollments and more than 1.2 million students per year—and the fastest growing program of any kind at many community colleges. (Report to Congress on State Performance, Adult Education and Family Literacy ACT FY 2003-2004, U.S. Department of Education, 2006, as cited in Passing the Torch: Strategies for Innovation in Community College ESL, Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy, 2007)
  • Virtually all ESL students are immigrants. Census data and projections indicate that half the growth of the American workforce in the 1990s was due to immigration—and most of our future workforce growth will come from this source, primarily from legal immigration. A large percent of adult immigrants (estimated at 15 million or more) have very limited English proficiency, and many also have low levels of prior education in their native countries. Most ESL students at the lower levels of English proficiency have less than a high school diploma.
  • The educational levels of immigrants are at the extremes: while the immigrant population of the U.S. contains a far higher percentage of adults with very low educational levels than does the native born population, it also contains a slightly greater percentage with a bachelor’s degree or higher. At both ends, immigrants turn to ESL programs. (Report to Congress on State Performance, Adult Education and Family Literacy ACT FY 2003-2004, U.S. Department of Education, 2006, as cited in Passing the Torch: Strategies for Innovation in Community College ESL, Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy, 2007)
  • Community colleges are among the largest providers of adult education ESL service in many states and communities. At community colleges in New York City, San Francisco, and Miami, ESL is both the single largest program and the fastest growing program.
  • Community colleges provide both non-credit ESL, offered cost free to immigrants with low levels of English language ability and credit ESL, which requires tuition and offered to students with greater English proficiency. Non-credit students constitute the majority of English language learners at most colleges.
  • VESL (Vocational ESL) programs are among the most effective and fastest growing forms of non-credit ESL instruction. That is because they provide a “shortcut” to vocational certification in areas of employment for which there is a significant workforce demand – such as aspects of the allied health field, and various areas of construction, maintenance, and hospitality. They offer a shortcut in that they enroll students who are at the Intermediate levels of ESL and often have no more than a sixth grade education.
  • The federal government’s National Reporting System for adult education (NRS) classifies language proficiency by six levels. According to the NRS, the overwhelming majority of ESL students enter programs at the two lowest levels, and NRS reports that only about 36% of ESL students advance one level per year.  
  • While ESL programs make a major contribution to improving the English abilities of many immigrants, only a small percentage of ESL students are enrolled in programs for as long as four semesters (the equivalent of two years or less) – either consecutively or at any time. As a result, few ESL students experience significant learning gains from adult education ESL programs. Moreover, only about 10 percent of non-credit ESL students make transitions to credit ESL, and an even smaller percentage make transitions to college academic or vocational programs. (Passing the Torch: Strategies for Innovation in Community College ESL, Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy, 2007; Adult ESL and the Community College, Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy, 2004)
  • However, the learning gains and transition rates of adult ESL students at the five community colleges profiled in Passing the Torch: Strategies for Innovation in Community College ESL have developed a variety of innovative strategies for improving ESL service and exceed national norms and norms for their states, according to the authors’ review of dozens of community colleges and ESL programs through other studies and primarily an in-depth examination of the five selected colleges: Bunker Hill Community College, The City College of San Francisco, The College of Lake County, Seminole Community College, and Yakima Valley Community College.

Work and family responsibilities:

  • Many immigrant college students are non-traditional students. More than half of immigrant college students are age 24 or older, one-third have dependents, and almost three-quarters work full- or part-time while attending school. (National Center on Educational Statistics, 2004, as cited in Opening the Door to the American Dream 2007)
  • Immigrant college students in New York City, while highly motivated academically, spent as much as 15 hours more each week on family responsibilities than their native-born peers. This pattern held true regardless of region of origin or socioeconomic status. (“Family Interdependence and Academic Adjustment in College Youth from Immigrant and U.S.-Born Families,” in Child Development 75 (3), as cited in Opening the Door to the American Dream: Increasing Higher Education Access and Success for Immigrants, Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2007)
  • Nearly three-quarters (74%) of Latino young adults ages 16 to 25 who cut their education short during or right after high school say they did so because they had to support their family. (Latinos and Education: Explaining the Attainment Gap, Pew Hispanic Center, 2009) 
  • The foreign born make up 35% of all Latino youths, and they are much more likely than native-born Latino youths to be supporting or helping to support a family, either in the U.S. or in their native country. Nearly, two-thirds (64%) of all immigrant Hispanics ages 18 to 25 say they send remittances to family members in their country of origin, compared with just 21% of their U.S. born counterparts. (Latinos and Education: Explaining the Attainment Gap, Pew Hispanic Center, 2009; Hispanics and the Economic Downturn: Housing Woes and Remittance Cuts, Pew Hispanic Center, 2009) 

Educational aspirations 

  • Nearly nine in ten (89%) Latino young adults ages 16 to 25 year say that a college education is important for success in life, yet only about half that number (48%) say that they themselves plan to get a college degree. (Latinos and Education: Explaining the Attainment Gap, Pew Hispanic Center, 2009) 
  • About half (48%) of Hispanic young adults ages 18 to 25 expects to get a college degree or more, compared with 60% of the U.S. general population of that age group. In addition to this gap in educational aspirations, there is also a second and even bigger gap between young Latinos who are immigrants and those who are native born. Less than one-in-three (29%) immigrant Latinos ages 18 to 25 say they plan to get a bachelor’s degree or more, which is half the share (60%) of native-born young Latinos who say the same.  (Latinos and Education: Explaining the Attainment Gap, Pew Hispanic Center, 2009; How Young People View Their Lies, Futures and Politics: A Portrait of Generation Next, Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 2007) 

Immigrant parents

  • In New York City, where 53 percent of children enrolled in public schools come from families in which English is not the primary language—41 percent of parents with limited English reported having to use the child or another student as translator when speaking to school staff. In addition, while 43 percent of these parents participated in school activities, 76 percent said they would participate if language translation services were available (Denied at the Door: Language Barriers Block Immigrant Parents from School Involvement, New York Immigration Coalition and Advocates for Children of New York 2004, as cited in Opening the Door to the American Dream: Higher Education Access and Success for Immigrants, Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2007)