Immigration, Intersectionality and Human Capital: Literacy and Adult Education in Upper- and Middle-Income Countries

Human capital is the center of global and local socioeconomics. Literacy alone statistically explains much of the cross-country variation in gross domestic product, effectiveness of democratic institutions and public health. Literacy improves social integration, effective parenting and labor market outcomes for individuals, families and communities. Participation in further adult education and training (ALE) increases human capital – specifically literacy. Participation and literacy outcomes from ALE stratify along socio-economic and demographic gradients. In this paper we investigate gender, immigration background, non-native speaking, educational attainment and parenthood as crucial fault lines in literacy levels. Using an intersectionality framework, we theorize that these characteristics are interactive rather than additive in their impact on ALE participation and literacy levels. I explore this possibility by statistically modeling the impact of these variables on participation in further adult education and literacy using Cycle 2 PIAAC data from 2022-23 in 28 countries. Using multilevel multivariate regression with interaction effects I isolate individual and interactive effects of these variables. I find intersectionality in gains to literacy. Using these results, I simulate how much each society would gain in literacy if education policy targeted disadvantaged groups. The simulation suggests that some, but not all societies would benefit socially and economically. The logical conclusions are that target groups can be framed as huge potential human capital assets to entire societies, rather than disadvantaged and marginalized burdens, and that targeting policy is sometimes, but not always, a good idea. Our findings call for a reframing of longstanding narratives that focus on single group boundaries such as gender.