Immigrant and U.S.-Born Parents of Young and Elementary-School-Age Children: Key Sociodemographic Characteristics

If parents, especially those of young children, play a key role in supporting their children’s education, the transition to remote learning during the Covid-19 pandemic made parental involvement in children’s schooling even more crucial. This fact sheet, entitled “Immigrant and U.S.-Born Parents of Young and Elementary-School-Age Children: Key Sociodemographic Characteristics,” examines the barriers faced by immigrant parents, compared to native-born parents, in supporting their young children’s education. To do so, authors Jacob Hofstetter and Margie McHugh draw from U.S. Census Bureau data concerning immigrant and U.S.-born parents of children aged 0 to 4 and 5 to 10. Drawing from the Migration Policy Institute’s wider study on parents of children under 18, this fact sheet examines sociodemographic characteristics of parents including education levels, English proficiency, employment, income and digital access. The authors found that immigrant parents face significantly more obstacles than U.S.-born parents in supporting their children’s school readiness and educational success over the longer term, due to the barriers that immigrant parents themselves face. These impediments include low levels of formal education, limited English proficiency, poverty, and barriers to digital access, all of which exacerbate educational inequity. Especially as online instruction during the pandemic required the direct involvement of parents in young children’s learning, this study highlights the need for systems designed to support the twin needs of immigrants parents as well as children, as the former is inextricably linked to the latter’s educational success. (Sonali Ravi for The Immigrant Learning Center’s Public Education Institute)