How education drives immigrant success
Embedded Files
February-May 2026
Isaac Unah could not imagine a life outside his small village in southeastern Nigeria. Born to subsistence farmers in a family of twelve children, the idea of a life in the United States felt almost impossible.
Then, his brother moved to New York to pursue higher education — and everything changed.
"I wanted to be like my brother," he said.
A few years later, Unah's brother encouraged him to apply to schools in the United States, too.
“He sent me the book that you use to study for the TOEFL [Test of English as a Foreign Language]…really out of the blue.” Unah said. “He just sent it to me and put in a note that I should take the TOEFL right after I graduated from secondary school [because] he would like for me to get admitted to a college in the United States.”
Unah’s decision to follow his brother’s advice and pursue higher education in the United States would go on to define the rest of his life.
For many immigrants, Unah’s story is not unique. Education has long been one of the most reliable pathways to upward mobility in the United States, offering opportunity and a degree of stability capable of transforming generations.
Research from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that children of immigrants tend to move up the income ladder faster than those of U.S.-born parents, often ranking several percentiles higher in income. When assessing data over a large period of time, access to education emerges as a key factor in driving this upward mobility.
This pattern is reflected in the rising education levels among immigrant populations. According to the Pew Research Center, the share of immigrants with college degrees has increased steadily over the past several decades, with immigrants today being nearly as likely as U.S.-born citizens to hold a bachelor’s degree.
Higher education levels are also closely tied to economic outcomes. For instance, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that individuals with higher levels of education consistently earn more and face lower unemployment rates than those with less schooling — regardless of an individual’s degree of citizenship. However, foreign-born graduates of U.S. universities still tend to earn more than their U.S.-born counterparts from the get-go, highlighting how education can create pathways to financial stability and long-term opportunity.
However, this path is rarely easy. Many immigrants face major financial strain, cultural adjustments, mental health struggles, and academic challenges, making success harder to achieve.
For Unah, those challenges were almost immediate.
As he started working toward his degree at the State University of New York at Cortland, he shared a one-bedroom apartment with his brother. Unah would sleep on a mattress on the floor with a desk beside him.
“That’s really all I needed,” he said.
He studied constantly, driven intrinsically by expectation and necessity. When his brother eventually returned to Nigeria, he gave Unah a choice: go back home, or stay and figure things out alone.
“I would stay here,” he said without hesitation.
With that decision came years of focus and sacrifice. He worked multiple jobs to survive in New York, applied for scholarships to afford his education, and in the midst of it all, slowly lost touch with his family.
“I would stay for a year without calling anybody because I could not afford it,” Unah said. “I came to a realization that this is not something I have control over, and so I’m not going to let it affect me in terms of my studies.”
But throughout the struggle, education remained his constant.
“I would not be the person that I am today if I didn’t stay in school,” he said.
Today, Unah still remains closely connected to academia as a professor of political science at UNC Chapel Hill. His story reflects that of millions of immigrants in the United States who have relied on education to build more stable futures for themselves and for the generations that follow.
Learn more about Isaac Unah's story here.
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