From Twitter: Culture and the Chinese in Spain

This post is a response to a question tweeted here.

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I was responding only to the idea that poor educational outcomes for the Chinese in Spain would disprove culture as an influence on educational outcomes. Before concluding anything from the Chinese-in-Spain example about the influence of culture on educational outcomes, we'd need to estimate the level of educational outcomes that would be expected of the Chinese in Spain in the absence of cultural influence and then compare that estimate to observed educational outcomes.

So what level of educational outcomes should be expected of the Chinese in Spain? The 2014 Financial Times article "China's migrants thrive in Spain's financial crisis" reported an estimate that 70 or 80 percent of the Chinese in Spain are from Qingtian, "an impoverished rural county". Nonetheless, the FT article suggests that the Chinese in Spain are doing relatively well in employment and business, citing low unemployment and overrepresentation in business startups. Maybe culture has something to do with these things, and maybe culture and success in employment and business will translate into better future educational outcomes. Or maybe culture has no effect on these things.