The impact of immigration-related separation and reunification on children's education: Evidence from the American Community Survey 2010–2018.

• Immigration-related family separation is a crisis in the US. • There are many forms of immigration-related family separation. • Immigration-related family separation leads to poorer education outcomes for children. • Length of time of separation leads to poorer outcomes for immigrant children. • Family separation affects children from all countries and regions of origin. Forced separation of immigrant children from their parents in 2018 spurred calls for immigration reform. Research shows that immigrant children experience separation from parents during the immigration process for many reasons and that they experience a wide range of negative outcomes. This paper builds on the scholarship exploring the relationship between family separation and education outcomes of US immigrant children. Using the sample of immigrant children (n = 94,731) in the 2010–2018 American Community Survey, this study analyzes the association between separation and the likelihood of a peer education gap using descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression analysis. This paper supports prior scholarship and finds that immigrant children who experience separation are over 35% more likely to experience a peer education gap. It adds to the literature by exploring patterns of immigrant children from all countries of origin and examining the effects of length of separation on education outcomes. While children from all places of origin experience separation, the percentage of such children is much smaller when children come from wealthier countries and regions and, more importantly, the length of separation is much longer for immigrant children from poorer countries. This study finds that the length of separation correlates with poorer education outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]