Educational performance of children of interethnic relationships in Denmark

Anna Tegunimataka, Lund University

As partnerships and marriages between Natives and foreign-born are becoming increasingly common in Denmark; this study closely examines the long term effect of these partnerships in terms of children’s human capital formation studying grades from final examinations in the core subjects Danish and Mathematics. This paper uses rich register data, where families are linked across generations and contributes to Scandinavian migration literature by providing new insights into human capital formation in immigrant families. Results show a clear gradient of educational performance across immigrant generations. Having one native -and one foreign-born parent is more beneficial as compared to having two foreign-born parents. Yet, children of interethnic relationships have slightly lower school results than children with two native born parents. Results are less clear when it comes to the importance of the gender of the non-native parent; however parental country of origin seems to be of importance for the educational performance of children from interethnic relationships in Denmark.