Schooling and the Intergenerational Transmission of Values

• Published date: 01 February 2017
• Date: 01 February 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jpet.12184

SCHOOLING AND THE INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION OF

VALUES

MARINA DELLA GIUSTA

University of Reading

NIGAR HASHIMZADE

Durham University and Institute for Fiscal Studies

GARETH D. MYLES

University of Exeter and Institute for Fiscal Studies

Abstract

We present a model of the evolution of identity via dynamic interac-

tion between the choice of education and the transmission of values in

a community from parents to children, when parents care about the

preservation of their traditional community values, different from the

values of the host society. We compare the educational and socioeco-

nomic outcomes in different scenarios (melting pot versus multicultur-

alism). If schooling shifts children’s identity away from their parents’

values, parents may choose lower levels of education for their children,

at the cost of reducing their future earnings. We show how this effect

can be attenuated and reversed when the school or, indeed, the host so-

ciety are willing to accommodate the values of the community and/or

to adjust to these values; otherwise the community gradually becomes

alienated. This approach may be applied to the analysis of temporal

changes in values and attitudes in a community of immigrants, as well

as ethnic, religious, or other minority groups.

1. Introduction

Immigration has featured as an increasingly important political issue in European de-

bates over the past two decades, and the integration of migrants into their host societies

is a subject raising anxieties both in the recipient countries and among the migrants

themselves. One of the most important channels for integration is the schooling pro-

cess. In the United Kingdom, nearly three quarters of teachers (72%) regard the promo-

tion of British values as part of a teacher’s role, with one in five teachers (21%) seeing

Marina Della Giusta, Department of Economics, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, RG6

6AH, UK (m.dellagiusta@reading.ac.uk). Nigar Hashimzade, Department of Economics and Finance,

Durham University,Durham, DH1 3LB, UK (nigar.hashimzade@durham.ac.uk). GarethMyles, Depart-

ment of Economics, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4RJ, UK (g.d.myles@exeter.ac.uk).

Thanks are due to participants at the Moscow Workshop on Diversity and Public Policy,at APET 2015

Luxembourg, and to seminar audiences in Reading and Exeter.

Received April 17, 2014; Accepted May 7, 2015.

C2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Journal of Public Economic Theory, 19 (1), 2017, pp. 1–17.

1

2 Journal of Public Economic Theory

this as a central part,1this is despite the fact that the poll found that there were a signif-

icant proportion of teachers (36%) who did not identify strongly as being British.2For

many immigrant communities, the consequence of schooling is that their values and

the values of the host society gradually converge over time until the community is assim-

ilated within the host. One remarkable example is the history of the Jewish community

that developed in the East End of London from 1880 onwards. Approximately 120,000

immigrants from Eastern Europe settled in Spitalfields between 1881 and 1914 with the

concentration such that the population of some districts was up to 95% Jewish; the area

had over 40 synagogues, and Yiddish was the predominant language on street signs and

in newspapers. However, according to the Board of Trade report of 1894, “children left

the Jews’ Free School on Bell Lane ‘almost indistinguishable’ from English children. Re-

ligious rituals also gradually became less distinctive, and fewer people spoke Yiddish.”3

This once large, vibrant, and distinctive community has now been entirely absorbed into

British society and, in the East End, only the historical record remains.

This paper models how the values of the host society, promoted by the system of

education, and the values of a migrant community interact in shaping the identity of

the new generation of the community members. The analysis shows how values change

across generations when children’s values are shaped both by their families and their

schooling, so that the reference norms for each new generation can be different from

those of the previous one. We trace the dynamic interaction between the values and

show when the process will lead to either assimilation of the community or lasting sep-

aration between the community and the host society. The important policy conclusion

is that separation results from the education of community children being restricted

by their parents to prevent or minimize exposure to host society values. This leaves the

community in a permanently disadvantaged economic position due to the low level of

education that is chosen.

There exists a large literature looking at the social and economic position of mi-

grants and their children in Europe and North America (for a comprehensive review,

see Corak 2004; and for a recent study of the Canadian case see Aydemir, Chen, and

Corak 2009, 2013). The common finding is that some socioeconomic outcomes are

transmitted from immigrant parents to their children, though convergence to host soci-

ety outcomes also occurs over time. For example, Blau et al. (2013) found that after two

generations, education and labor supply of immigrants converge to those of the host

population (a shortfall of between 4% and 13% of education and between 3% and 4%

of labor supply); fertility, however, shows more persistence (between 16% and 42% of

excess fertility remains).

Research on the evolution of the ethnic identity of immigrants shows that values are

important to the process of creating an ethnic identity and the latter is then an impor-

tant determinant of economic choices. Constant, Gataullina, and Zimmermann (2009)

define ethnic identity as “the balance between commitment or self-identification with

the culture and society of origin and commitment or self-identification with the host

culture and society, achieved by an individual after migration” (p. 276), and discuss

1Data from YouGov research, commissioned by TeachersTV.

2Press release of Teachers TV published online (http://www.teachers.tv/node/29223). Research was

conducted online by YouGov Plc between 17 and 22 September,2008. YouGov interviewed 643 primary

and secondary school teachers. Results have not been weighted. YouGov is a member of the British

Polling Council.

3http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/immig˙emig/england/london/article˙2.shtml. Accessed on April 17,

2014.