Does Parental Migration During Childhood Affect Children's Lifetime Educational Attainment? Evidence From Mexico

Existing schol arship reveals impor tant and com pet ing influences of paren tal migration on chil dren's educational trajec to ries. On the one hand, in the short term, left-behind chil dren commonly take on additional house work and sometimes place less empha sis on education if they aspire to fol low in their par ents' migratory foot steps. On the other hand, paren tal migration often leads to mon e tary trans fers (remittances), which reduces finan cial pres sure on send ing households and can strengthen educational aspi- rations among chil dren left behind. Because pre vi ous studies exam ined these effects on chil dren still complet ing their educations, the cumu lative impact of paren tal migration on chil dren's educational attain ment remains uncertain. In this study, we use retro spective life history data from the Mex i can Migration Project to link paren tal migrations occur- ring dur ing childhood with chil dren's educational attain ment mea sured in adulthood. Using a novel coun ter factual approach, we find that paren tal migration dur ing childhood is asso ci ated with increased years of school ing and higher prob a bil ities of complet- ing lower-sec ond ary school, enter ing upper-sec ond ary school, and complet ing upper- sec ond ary school. These asso ci ations were stron gest among chil dren whose par ents did not complete primary school and those living in rural areas. Results from a placebo test sug gest that these pos itive asso ci ations can not be attributed to unob served house hold char ac ter is tics related to paren tal migration, which supports a causal interpretation of our main find ings. Thus, our analy sis suggests that, on average, and par ticularly among more- dis ad van taged households, the long-term educational benefits asso ci ated with paren tal migration outweigh short -term dis ruptions and strain asso ci ated with paren tal absence.