The Effect of Immigration on Natives' School Performance: Does Length of Stay in the Host Country Matter?

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.