Why Do Immigrant Youths Who Never Enroll in U.S. Schools Matter? School Enrollment Among Mexicans and Non-Hispanic Whites

Using data from the 2000 Public Use Sample of the U.S. Census, this research examines how estimates of school enrollment and school-work patterns among Mexican-origin adolescents are affected by including or excluding young immigrants who never enrolled in U.S. schools. The analysis demonstrates that a non-trivial share of adolescents who were born in Mexico almost certainly never enrolled in U.S. schools; these youth most likely migrated to the United States for work. Excluding these adolescents from analyses substantially reduces gaps in school enrollment between Mexicans and Whites and between native and foreign-born Mexicans. Excluding never-enrolled immigrant youth also changes the relationship between duration of U.S. residence and idleness among Mexican immigrant youth, revealing that additional years of residence in the United States increase the likelihood of being out of school and not working compared to in school and not working. Overall, inferences about the level of school enrollment and intra-ethnic differences in school enrollment by duration of residence depend on how those who are likely to have never enrolled in U.S. schools are treated. Inferences about interethnic differences also are affected, although they are somewhat less sensitive to this issue.