The influence of immigration status on early childhood education and care enrollment

Early childhood education and care has become the norm for children in the United States and most European countries. In the United States, immigrant children, a growing demographic, are under-enrolled, particularly in formal settings. This research revealed that younger children of immigrant mothers were less likely to be in non-parental care, but immigrant status did not affect enrollment of three-five-year-old children when various parental and child characteristics were controlled. Socio-economic factors were more important predictors of early childhood education and care use than immigrant status in the older group, which suggests that policies aimed at increasing enrollment among immigrants must consider the primacy of these variables.