Report: Highly educated immigrants in the U.S. earn more than those in Canada
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Research by Statistics Canada found that university-educated immigrants in the U.S. earn more than their counterparts in Canada.
New and university degree holder Canadian immigrants earned 50 percent less than native-born Canadians, while the pay gap between U.S. born worker and the educated migrant was only 30 percent.
The study examined migrants who arrived between 1980 to 2005. Prior to the research period covered, the pay gap of the university-educated migrants in both North American countries against native-born workers was more or less the same.
StatsCan, however, could not pinpoint the reason behind the growing gap. Among the theories is that an oversupply of university degree holders among Canadian migrants. In 1980, only 20 percent of new arrivals have degrees, while by 2005, the figure had risen to 55 percent.
Another reason posited is that the new Canadian migrants were mostly Asians, instead of Europeans, so 80 percent of them did not speak English or French at home, as opposed to 50 percent only in the 1970s.
One more worrying finding is that after more than a decade of working in Canada, the migrants’ wage gap with native-born workers persisted and even worsened to 30 percent in the 1990s from 10 percent in the 1960s. In comparison, the wage gap in the U.S. remained at 12 percent.
But despite the wage advantage among U.S. immigrants, majority of them are still considered lower-paid workers who like the average American struggle to pay their bills and provide for even basic necessities.
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