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What money can-t buy: Educational aspirations and international migration in Ecuador

Abstract:

This article studies how educational aspirations of children are shaped in Biblián, Ecuador, a traditional sending country. Data sources were a multi-level survey and semi-structured interviews that were analysed using logistic regression and thematic analysis, respectively. Several theoretical relationships are confirmed: the household socioeconomic status, caregiver-s educational aspirations and age are the most important variables that pbkp_redict the educational aspirations of children. Child migratory dreams and the absence of the father or the mother only pbkp_redict the educational aspiration of getting a high school degree, but do not pbkp_redict the aspiration of a graduate degree. Thematic analysis suggests that, besides seeing education as a means to have higher incomes, mothers perceive it as a sign of social status and assign it an intrinsic value.