UCLA

Despite decades of research on migrant academic outcomes, limited research has addressed how the act of migrating affects academic performance. In addition, foreign-born children of return migrants now number in the millions worldwide, yet we know little about their academic outcomes. Using test score data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), this dissertation is one of the first attempts to characterize the academic achievement of this population on a large scale. Following a short introduction (Chapter 1), Chapter 2 establishes a baseline for the analysis by estimating a causal effect of migration on PISA scores for adolescents globally. Chapters 3 and 4 turn to academic achievement of foreign-born children of return migrants, implementing a novel research design involving host- and birth-country comparisons to target both descriptive and causal estimands. Chapter 3 estimates descriptive and causal gaps in PISA scores of children of return migrants, then uses meta-analytic models to examine policies as well as features of origin and destination countries that shape these gaps. Chapter 4 is a case study of PISA scores for children of the largest group of return migrants in the world: Mexican migrants who return from the United States to Mexico. Chapter 5 concludes.