Who Are the Third Generation and How Are They Doing?

Andreas Ljungström , Stockholm University

Recent research in migration and stratification studies has begun to move beyond the second generation to examine educational and socioeconomic outcomes among the third generation, or the grandchildren of immigrants. While this literature is growing, there remains little consensus on what constitutes the third generation. Definitions differ across studies, often depending on data availability or implicit assumptions about ancestry and assimilation. This definitional heterogeneity poses a substantive problem for demographic analysis. Measures of generational attainment and "convergence" are not directly comparable across studies if the underlying definitions differ. I address this gap by formalizing various definitions from the literature and then evaluating how these definitions affect estimates of educational performance across generations using the same underlying data. I formalize these various approaches into a framework of generational inheritance rules. By treating generation as an attribute that is transmitted from parents to children according to specific rules, I can systematically compare how different definitions affect estimates of educational attainment. Using Swedish population register data that link individuals to their parents and grandparents, I construct generational classifications under a set of different definitions. I then estimate differences in compulsory school grade point average (GPA) across generations under each definition. Preliminary analyses suggest that the size of educational performance differences differ substantively depending on the chosen definition, highlighting the importance of carefully considering how generational status is defined.

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 Presented in Session 63. Immigrants' Descendants and Social Stratification