2019/05/21 by Christina Felfe, Helmut Rainer, Judith Saurer · 1 voice · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Education and experiences of immigrants and refugees #Migration and Labor Dynamics #Migration, Refugees, and Integration
paper · doi:10.1086/704570
openalex publication_date 2019/05/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
This paper examines whether the introduction of birthright citizenship in Germany affected immigrant children’s educational outcomes at the first three stages of the education system: preschool, primary school, and secondary school. Using a birth date cutoff as a source of exogenous variation, we find that the policy (i) increased immigrant children’s participation in noncompulsory preschool education, (ii) had positive effects on key developmental outcomes measured at the end of the preschool period, (iii) caused immigrant children to progress faster through primary school, and (iv) increased the likelihood of them attending the academic track of secondary school.