Immigration In Public Schools

In the past three decades, the United States has experienced a fundamental shift in immigration policy, with a rise in the number of new immigrants and major changes in their countries of origin. These immigrants, primarily from Asian and Latin American countries, have a profound impact on the ethnic, racial and immigrant composition of public schools in many major US cities. Immigration induces “native flight,” especially among white natives, from public schools into private schools, thus altering the ethnic, racial and immigrant composition of public schools. The less affluent students of color who remain in the public school system face debilitating repercussions to their livelihoods and quality of life if the number of native born schoolchildren who opt to attend private instead of public schools in response to immigration continues to increase.
The decline in white enrollment in Los Angeles and other major metropolitan public school districts is due to the increased rate at which native white schoolchildren attend private schools. Census data …show more content…
One hypothesis is that LEP students place additional stress on a school’s resources, which in turn induces “flight.” There is evidence that immigration is associated with a slight decline in educational attainment of natives. This finding points to resource reallocation within schools and universities as a potential consequence of immigration. The second possibility, proposed by Conlon and Kimenyi in their analysis of white families’ school choices, labels “native flight” a reaction borne of irrational racial and ethnic prejudice. The finding that the overall immigrant share affects private school choice at the high school level, where greater socioeconomic mixing occurs, but not at the elementary level, is consistent with the idea of “native flight” as an expression of