The effect of immigration on natives' school performance does length of stay in the host country matter?

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of exposure to immigrant classmates on natives' scholastic achievement. I utilize rare information on age at migration to estimate separate spillover effects by duration of stay of immigrant classmates and use cohort-by-cohort changes in immigrant presence within schools to identify treatment effects. I find that exposure to immigrant students who have been in the country for a few years has no effect on natives. A small negative effect of recent immigrants on natives' verbal scores only is reported. Effect sizes are quite small compared to other classroom interventions and peer effect estimates.