About the talk:

This presentation is part of a project that compares Afro-Caribbean migrants and their offspring across five destinations: the US, UK, Netherlands, Canada and France.  Previous UCI presentations have examined residential segregation and intermarriage; the present talk focuses on the educational attainment of later generation Afro-Caribbeans.  Two dependent variables—tertiary completion and attendance at age 21—are considered. The methodology estimates cross-national differences using multi-variate analyses of large data sets.  Net individual-level determinants, there are theoretical grounds for expecting Afro-Caribbean educational attainment to be highest in the US.  Its educational structure is relatively flexible and affirmative action has been practiced widely.  But there are also grounds for expecting Afro-Caribbean attainment to be higher in Europe; schools are less segregated there and the stigma of blackness less intense.  

The results support neither expectation.  The most consistent cross-national pattern is that, net controls, Afro-Caribbeans in France fare relatively well compared to native whites, while Afro-Caribbeans in the US fare relatively poorly.  In addition, women perform substantially better than men.  The contrast is especially strong for Dutch Antilleans, with the males underperforming, relative to native whites, and the females overperforming.  The high rate of single motherhood among Afro-Caribbeans probably contributes to the gender gap, but, statistically, Afro-Caribbeans incur a smaller educational penalty for having a single parent than native whites do. 

About the speaker:

Suzanne Model received her Ph.D. in social work and sociology from the University of Michigan.  She is professor emerita in the Department of Sociology of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Research Associate at the Center for Population, Inequality and Policy at UCI. Recently, her research has focused on cross-national differences in the integration of immigrants, with emphasis on Afro-Caribbeans and Chinese.  Recent publications include “Trends in Partnership Among Afro-Caribbean Women: Generations and Destinations Compared” Journal of Comparative Family Studies (March 2023), “Patterns of Black-White Partnership: Black Ethnics and African Americans Compared, Journal of Marriage and Family (May 2020) and “Mass Culture Versus Class Culture: Some Reflections on ‘The Asian Achievement Paradox’”, Ethnic and Racial Studies (February 2020).