The educational attainment of the 19–21 year olds in our sample appears
to be influenced by the presence or absence of parents, but only to a
point. Data from the Survey of Households and Children of Overseas
Workers suggest that having one’s parent or parents overseas tends to be
positively associated with college matriculation at the bivariate level. Once
other factors are controlled, that association disappears, although having
one’s mother employed overseas appears to be positively associated with
the total years of formal schooling children left behind complete. While a
number of U.S.-based studies have argued that single-parent families lead
to negative outcomes for children, our analysis of overseas labor migration
suggests that having a migrant parent may actually improve education
outcomes for some children. It is not surprising, however, that having
both parents away produces more negative outcomes.