The Effect of Unrestricted Immigration on Schools

Abstract

Opponents of immigration claim that because of migration, native schoolchildren have “no room to learn,” and educational standards are being “dumbed down.” To estimate the largest-possible immediate effects of various types of migrants on the degree of overcrowding and academic achievement in secondary schools in large cities in particular, this chapter analyzes official overtime classroom density and test score data from three natural experiments where immigration is clearly exogenous to the choice of school district: Mariel Cubans in Miami; Algerian “repatriates” in Marseille; and Eastern Europeans in Dublin. Elite interviews, archival materials, and quantitative panel analysis suggest that unrestricted immigration of secondary school students does not substantially increase classroom density or affect overall test scores. The study therefore disconfirms an immigration-based “peer effects” model of academic achievement.