Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Demography. 2022 Dec 1;59(6):2053-2078. doi: 10.1215/00703370-10272631.
Black-Latina/o and White-Latina/o bachelor's degree gaps persist in the United States despite substantial increases in Latina/o educational attainment since the late 1950s. The Latina/o population has grown rapidly in recent decades and currently comprises more than 20% of the U.S. population; however, barriers to citizenship have grown in tandem and have limited access to higher education. Using data from the U.S. Census (1950-2010) and the American Community Survey (2015-2017), we examine trends in Black-Latina/o and White-Latina/o college completion gaps and factors that may explain them. We find that college enrollment differences explain the majority of the bachelor's degree gaps. We then decompose enrollment gaps by differences in enrollment by citizenship and find that if the Latina/o population had the same citizenship rate as the White and Black populations, the Black-Latina/o enrollment gaps would effectively disappear and the White-Latina/o enrollment gaps would be reduced by up to 75%. Our findings indicate that the Latina/o population's relatively low college completion rates are partially explained by restricted access to citizenship. The high proportion of Latina/o noncitizens has also masked the considerable educational progress Latina/o citizens have made in recent decades.
尽管自 20 世纪 50 年代末以来拉丁裔受教育程度大幅提高，但美国的黑拉丁裔/白拉丁裔学士学位差距仍然存在。在过去几十年中，拉丁裔人口迅速增长，目前占美国人口的 20%以上；然而，公民身份的障碍也随之增加，限制了他们接受高等教育的机会。利用美国人口普查（1950-2010 年）和美国社区调查（2015-2017 年）的数据，我们研究了黑拉丁裔/白拉丁裔大学完成率差距的趋势以及可能解释这些差距的因素。我们发现，大学入学率的差异解释了大部分学士学位差距。然后，我们通过公民身份入学率的差异对入学率差距进行了分解，发现如果拉丁裔人口的公民身份率与白人和黑人人口相同，那么黑拉丁裔的入学率差距将有效消失，而白拉丁裔的入学率差距将减少多达 75%。我们的研究结果表明，拉丁裔人口相对较低的大学毕业率部分归因于获得公民身份的限制。拉丁裔非公民的高比例也掩盖了拉丁裔公民在最近几十年取得的相当大的教育进步。
