“Why Birthright Citizenship Matters for Immigrant Children: Short- and Long-Run Impacts on Education Integration”

This paper examines whether the introduction of birthright citizenship
in Germany affected immigrant children’s educational outcomes
at the first three stages of the education system: preschool,
primary school, and secondary school. Using a birth date cutoff as
a source of exogenous variation, we find that the policy (i) increased
immigrant children’s participation in noncompulsory preschool education,
(ii) had positive effects on key developmental outcomes
measured at the end of the preschool period, (iii) caused immigrant
children to progress faster through primary school, and (iv) increased
the likelihood of them attending the academic track of secondary
school.