We focus on high school dropout rates among male and female immigrant children. We consider the relationship between the dropout rate and age at arrival of the immigrants. Using repeated cross sectional data from the Israeli Labor Force Surveys of 1996-2011 we show that the share of high school dropouts among immigrant children who arrived from the Former Soviet Union during 1989-1994 is at least double that of natives in the same age group. Further, we show that among immigrant youth there is a negative relation between age at arrival and the share of high school dropouts. To understand our results we present a theoretical framework that links between age at arrival in the host country, language proficiency, quality of education and wages. Keywords: Immigrants, Age at arrival, High-school dropouts. © 2014, Cohen Goldner and Epstein; licensee Springer.

I21, J24, J61

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