Contrary to the popular disadvantage thesis in education of young adults with a migration background, studies regarding Switzerland and other European countries have shown that immigrant descendants often outperform their peers, when controlling for SES (Schnell & Fibbi, 2015; Schnell et al., 2013). These unexpected successful pathways are often attributed to the comparatively higher educational aspirations of migrant parents or as Crul et al. (2017, p. 334) put it: a “success-driven habitus” in migrant families. Furthermore, particularly research in the US refers to the “immigrant bargain” or “family bargain” as an explanation. This concept stipulates the idea that parents transmit their educational and professional ambitions to their children with the expectation to overcome their status-loss resulting from migration (Louie, 2012; Smith, 2002). Parents believe that their children will experience intergenerational social mobility and potentially improve compared to parents’ socio-economic status (Crul et al., 2017; Kao & Tienda, 1995; Louie, 2012). The existing literature also puts forward that, more generally, parents consider migration a family project of social upward mobility. A major component of the realization of this project is that it is expected to be realized by the children pursuing successful educational pathways.

With respect to the European context, there is hardly any evidence on the family bargain. With the present study, we want to broaden the scope and focus on Switzerland. Switzerland is a particularly interesting and relevant case, as around a quarter of the population has an immigrant background. Moreover, Switzerland has a highly selective educational tracking system. Early tracking strongly shapes further educational and labour market chances. While there is a high degree of intergenerational reproduction of inequalities, the observation that children of immigrant descent often outperform their native peers with comparable SES also holds in Switzerland (Schnell & Fibbi, 2015). One relevant factor explaining this are parental aspirations, which tend to be higher in immigrant compared to native families (Kamm et al., 2021). 

In order to shed more light on the extent to which the “immigrant bargain” might play a role and within the context of the mixed-method project Parental Investment in Children’s Education (PICE), we will investigate the concept of “migration as a family project of social upward mobility”. PICE analyses parental investments in their children’s education as a multidimensional complex interplay of parental aspirations, resources and strategies. The overall aim of the PICE-project is to identify the factors that explain “success against the odds”. To that end we contrast young adults with an immigrant background from the most important immigrant groups who face particular challenges with respect to the education and labor market (i.e. from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Balkan and Sri Lanka) with their native Swiss counterparts. The objective of this paper is to shed light on the family processes that underlie the immigrant bargain. We will explore the strategies parents pursue and how they expect their children to fulfil their part of the bargain. Furthermore, we analyse the children’s perspective. This approach makes our paper innovative and useful for developing strategies to better support migrant families in guiding the children’s educational careers.

For the empirical analyses, PICE combines data from the quantitative panel survey TREE2 (Transitions from Education to Employment; n=8,429) with a qualitative in-depth study, in which we interviewed educationally successful TREE2 respondents from families with modest social origin and one of their parents (i.e., respondents are successful “against the odds”). This allows us to shed light on the phenomenon from the parental as well as the child’s perspective and permits intergenerational insights. Analyses of the TREE2 data show that migrant parents do express higher educational aspirations compared to their native peers. This holds particularly in some migrant groups, namely those from Turkey and Sri Lanka. Against that background and based on the in-depth interviews, we further investigate the family bargain from an intergenerational perspective. The mixed methods approach allows us to further investigate the concept of family bargain in the European context.

Preliminary analyses of the qualitative data suggest that parents sometimes “sacrifice” their own educational/professional potential to support their children in achieving educational success. The quantitative data show that parents pursue a variety of strategies when trying to realize their aim of mobility as a family project. As a next step of the project, we plan to analyse the data in more depth and to fully exploit the mixed methods potential of the data.

Crul, M., Schneider, J., Keskiner, E., & Lelie, F. (2017, 2017/01/26). The multiplier effect: how the accumulation of cultural and social capital explains steep upward social mobility of children of low-educated immigrants. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(2), 321-338. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2017.1245431 Kamm, C., Gomensoro, A., Heers, M., & Hupka-Brunner, S. (2021). Educational Aspirations of Migrant Parents and the Relationship With Educational Success European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), Geneva (online). https://zenodo.org/record/5180591#.YbxPO2jMKUk Kao, G., & Tienda, M. (1995). Optimism and Achievement: The Educational Performance of Immigrant Youth. Social Science Quarterly, 76(1), 1-19. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44072586 Louie, V. (2012). Keeping the Immigrant Bargain: The Costs and Rewards of Success in America. Russell Sage. Schnell, P., & Fibbi, R. (2015, 2015/07/25/). Getting Ahead: Educational and Occupational Trajectories of the ‘New’ Second-Generation in Switzerland. Journal of International Migration and Integration. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-015-0452-y Schnell, P., Keskiner, E., & Crul, M. (2013, 2013/03/01). Success against the Odds. Education Inquiry, 4(1), 125-147. https://doi.org/10.3402/edui.v4i1.22065 Smith, R. C. (2002). Life course, generation, and social location as factors shaping second-generation transnational life. In The changing face of home: The transnational lives of the second generation (pp. 145-167). Russell Sage Foundation.