After optimism: a life course perspective on the aspirations, trajectories, and social mobility of children of immigrants

Despite achieving lower grades on average in lower-secondary school, children of immigrants have high aspirations and choose academic tracks in upper-secondary school at higher rates than their majority peers.

Research on this ‘immigrant optimism’ has mainly explored its causes and assessed its impact on degree completion rates. This project adopts a wider life course perspective on this phenomenon and extends this literature in several ways.

First, we go beyond degree completion by mapping out the broader educational and labour-market trajectories that these degree choices result in.

Second, we advance the primarily quantitative work on the causes of this optimism by examining the socio-biographical forces and affective drives it depends upon.

Third, we extend prior work on class and social mobility by studying the social psychological impact of the mobility patterns that this optimism results in.

Methodologically, we use a sequential mixed-methods design combining longitudinal register data, survey data, and life history interviews.

Theoretically, we innovate by applying recent post-Bourdieusian theory to the empirical challenges of this field and aim to refine this theoretical work in the process.

The study also has major societal relevance as it will increase our understanding of the social factors underlying the polarized educational outcomes among children of immigrants and generate key insights into how to maximize the benefits of optimism while minimizing its risks.