Assimilation and Educational Achievement: The Case of Coptic Orthodox Egyptian Immigrants in Texas

Abstract

Scholarly debate swirls around how well children of immigrants are faring and what factors promote their educational success. While prior research has found that assimilation into the mainstream society is the key to educational success among immigrants, other studies have found that high involvement in one’s ethnic community contributes to better educational outcomes. The current study focuses on the assimilation of a unique sample of Coptic Orthodox Egyptian immigrants in Texas (N= 106). Specifically, this study examines the influence of two predictors—parental religious involvement and parental school involvement—on children’s educational achievement. Results show that the majority of Coptic Orthodox immigrant parents intensively participate in their ethnic church/community, yet their religious participation does not have a statistically significant influence on their children’s educational achievement. On the contrary, parental school involvement, as a form of assimilation into the mainstream society, significantly and positively contributes to their children’s educational achievement. These findings suggest that Coptic Orthodox immigrants follow upward mobility assimilation to the American mainstream society.