Social violence and the impacts on the education in migrant households

Abstract

This article discusses the relationship between migration and education in the context of social violence. Migration stimulates development and alleviates poverty by providing money for household human capital investments in the migrant's home country; however, in the context of social violence, the positive effects of migration may be offset or disappear entirely. Using unique data from Santiago de Cali, with one of the highest homicide rates worldwide, we find that living in a migrant household increases the probability of reaching non-compulsory levels of education and completing high school. However, exposure to social violence can mitigate the positive impact of migration on education for children in unsafe and violent neighbourhoods.