The Effect of Immigrant Parents on their Children Choices of Education

Essay 3 (Draft 1)

The Effect of Immigrant Parents on their Children Choices of Education

Majority of the immigrants have no option but to cope with tough decisions relating to the provision of care and education to their children in their destination countries. In certain instances, the engagement of a child with the school and care may assist in fostering acculturation between the child and the parent. Parent immigrants can influence their children education choices as they go to college. Immigrants children tend to choose their college majors based on their parent career path, expectation and financial status.

Majority of the students in college often follow the career previously taken by their parents when making choices of the majors they prefer to study. Although, there are other immigrant children who choose their major based on their personal interest, that is not the case for most immigrant. Normally, it is the parents who offer the support in handling personal issues and as well as serving the role of motivators to children in their respective educational path and enhancing of their engagement with the society (Hegna and Ingrid 1119). Thus, confirms the inspiration that students often get from their parents because of the value and honor they have towards from their childhood days.

Parent dedication to their work can make a huge impact on their children career choices since they are a big inspiration to their children (Hohn & Mohammed 4). The existing work environment or the present activities that the parents are engaged in may dictate the interests of the children towards their career they intend to pursue. Happiness of living parents because of the occupation or wok they are doing that has steady income may have impact as well. Hence, the article “Higher Education and Children in Immigrants Families” acknowledged that the work aspiration has the tendency of influencing the future occupation that children would want to be in the future (Sandy and Stella 7)

Immigrant parent sometimes pushes their children to choose a certain major that they think it’s a better choice for their children. Indeed, the role played by the expectations from the parents has impact on the academic progress of a child and this has drawn the attention of the sociologists and psychologists Sandy and Stella (p.7) and Hond & Mohammed Denzil (p.4) in the previous century. In certain instances, parents tend to force their children to take certain major that have confidence in of being good career choices.

Generally, the expectations from parents have had major role in the academic success of the children. Students from parents with more expectations get good grades, attain higher scores in relation to the standard tests and stay longer pursing their respective academic ambitions when compared to those from parents with low expectations. Regardless of these assertions, it is still eminent that parent is still offering and respecting the choices made by the children on matters pertaining to education (Mavrogordato and Marc 1039).

Higher expectations from the immigrant parents can form a connection with the motivation of their children towards success in learning institutions and the social form. In other word, the parent academic expectations are the bridge between the background of the family and success of their children. In fact, majority of immigrant students choose their college career because of the expectations of their immigrant parents to achieve their dream through their children by pursuing a certain major (Hohn & Mohammad 3). This could form such a big responsibility on immigrant children to please their parent by choosing a certain college major instead of choosing something that they want, or they like.

Another aspect that affects choice of education among children from immigrant parents is the family’s financial status. In the United States, the tuition college is generally expansive which lead the financial status of the parents of the students being a huge factor that has major impact on their choices in education. This could be linked with the limited resources that a family may be have, which give their children less hope with availability of career choices they intent to pursue in colleges (Mavisakalyan 6).

However, there certain parents with good education and salary or engaged in business that assists in supporting their respective education. Immigration students who are from low income earning families have higher chances of struggling if they intend to pursue higher levels of education. A good example identified by Mavisakalyan (p.6) is the case of the Asian immigrants who have higher chances of holding top skilled positions such as medicine or engineering. On the other hand, immigrants of Latino origin are seen to be occupying less skilled jobs because of their poor financial condition (Sandy and Stella 173). Hence, immigrant children career level is associated to the financial support from their parents.

In conclusion, immigrant parent has the highest impact effect on their children education choices as they go to college. Immigrant children education choices can be based on parent career inspiration, expectation, or financial status. In fact, many children tend to get inspired by their parent dedication to their jobs. On other hand, many children force themselves to choose a career path just to satisfy their parent eagerness of reaching a certain dream in the United States. Immigrant parent can also limit their children education choices because of a low-income financial status. In my opinion, parent should support and respect their children education choices as much as possible. Education is a great weapon for creativity and society development. Limiting children education choices can kill their passion toward education, which will be no more than a path that will end one day.

Works Cited

Hegna, Kristinn, and Ingrid Smette. "Parental influence in educational decisions: young people’s perspectives." British Journal of Sociology of Education 38.8 (2017): 1111-1124.

Hond Marcia & Mohammed Denzil. “New Kind of Ellis Island as Second-Generation Immigrants Land on College Campuses” EBSCO Host. Web. April 10, 2019

Mavisakalyan, Astghik. "The impact of immigration on school choice: Evidence from Australia." Australasian Public Choice Conference. 2009.

Mavrogordato, Madeline, and Marc Stein. "Accessing choice: A mixed-methods examination of how Latino parents engage in the educational marketplace." Urban Education 51.9 (2016): 1031-1064.

Sandy Baum and Stella M. Flores. “Higher Education and Children in Immigrants Families” Future of Children VOL.21/NO.1/Spring 2011. 171-193 Print