Overview
Parental separation is widely associated with disadvantages in children’s educational trajectories. Yet this relationship is more complex than often assumed. Educational outcomes after parental separation vary depending on families’ socioeconomic resources, parental education, and social support networks. Even less is known about how these dynamics unfold in migration societies, particularly for children growing up in families with different migration backgrounds.
This Policy Insights examines how parental separation affects the likelihood of attaining a university degree, paying special attention to interethnic families—those in which one parent is foreign-born and the other native-born. Drawing on data from the Generations and Gender Survey across 13 European countries, the study compares children from non-migrant families, two-migrant families, and interethnic families. The findings show that children from interethnic families often grow up in comparatively well-educated households and have relatively high educational aspirations. At the same time, they experience parental separation more frequently.
The results reveal that the consequences of separation differ substantially across family constellations and parental education levels. In particular, children from interethnic families face pronounced disadvantages when they lose access to the resources of a highly educated or native-born father. This suggests that not only socioeconomic background but also the specific migration constellation within families shapes educational opportunities after separation.
By highlighting the diversity of family migration backgrounds, this issue underscores the importance of considering complex family structures in both research and policymaking. Understanding how parental separation intersects with migration and social inequality is essential for designing policies that promote equal educational opportunities in increasingly diverse societies.
To read more, please click the link: ECPD_PolicyInsights_2026.2.