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Title: Latina/o Postsecondary Education: Trends in Racial/Ethnic Education Gaps and the Role of Citizenship in Access to Higher Education
Citation Type: Working Paper
Publication Year: 2022
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Abstract: Black-Latina/o and White-Latina/o bachelor’s degree gaps persist despite substantial increases in Latina/o educational attainment since the late 1950s. The Latina/o population has grown rapidly in recent decades and currently comprises over 20% of the United States population. However, barriers to citizenship have grown in tandem, and these barriers have limited access to higher education. Using data from the U.S. Census (1950-2010) and the ACS (2015-2017), we examine trends in Black-Latina/o and White-Latina/o college completion gaps and factors that may explain them. We find that college enrollment differences explain the majority of the bachelor’s degree gaps. We then decompose enrollment gaps by differences in enrollment by citizenship. We find that if Latina/os had the same citizenship rates as the White and Black populations, the Black-Latina/o enrollment gaps would effectively disappear, and the White-Latina/os enrollment gaps would be reduced by up to 75%. Our findings indicate that the Latina/o population's relatively low college completion rates can partially be explained by restricted access to citizenship. The high proportion of Latina/o non-citizens has also masked the considerable educational progress Latina/o citizens have made in recent decades.
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Authors: Dyer, Shauna; Román-Torres, Giovanni
Series Title: CID Discussion Paper
Publication Number: 2022-1
Institution: Stone Center for Inequality Dynamics, University of Michigan
Pages: 1-49
Publisher Location: Ann Arbor
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Education, Race and Ethnicity
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