Effects of childhood migration on intergenerational educational mobility

Abstract

Knowing the influence of family background on the accumulation of human capital is essential for designing public policies to raise the population’s level of education. This paper analyzes the intergenerational educational mobility in Brazil according to the condition of migration. We intend to verify changes in the educational attainment of migrants - relative to their parents -  in childhood or early adolescence from the Northeast to the Southeast region of Brazil between the 1950s and 1980s. This emphasis considers the importance of this migratory flow in the recent history of the country. The data used comes from the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD/IBGE) of 2014, which included supplementary information on socio-occupational mobility. The methodology comprises the estimation of the intergenerational persistence of education, using a linear regression model, and an ordered logit model for schooling levels. Our results contrast with those obtained in most of the international literature and show that those who migrated in childhood or early adolescence from the Northeast to the Southeast of Brazil between the 1950s and 1980s had lower intergenerational mobility in education when compared to natives in the regions of origin or destination.