University educated immigrants faring better in America than Canada

Canada, 20th January: Highly educated immigrants living in the US are faring better than those in Canada, findings of a latest study by Statistics Canada show.

And this is an imminent sign of trouble for Canada looking to attract the brightest and the best global talent.

As per the study findings between 1980 and 2005, highly educated immigrants in Canada witnessed a noticeable fall in their earnings as compared to the native Canadian university graduates.

The study undertaken by Aneta Bonikowska traced the earnings of new immigrants in Canada having University degrees. It showed that there has been a fall of nearly 50 percent in their earnings than native Canada-born university graduates.

And the findings show that the earnings of US immigrants with university degrees was 30 percent less than the earnings of US born university educated.

The period of 1990s saw the trend of earnings among immigrants worsening, states Bonikowksa. But, the reason behind this difference is not clear.

The lead author stated that the growing differences between the earnings of natives and immigrants could not be due to hiring strategies since occupations including engineering had flooded the employment markets of the US and Canada at almost the same time.

However, the author suggested some theories including an abundant supply of university-educated immigrants in Canada as compared to those in the US, and hence, the supply might be an issue.

And another reason could be the language ability, suggests Bonikowksa.

The number of university-educated immigrants being accepted by Canada has been going up since the year 1980.

The number of immigrants with university degrees being allowed into Canada went up from 20 percent in the year 1980 to 55 percent by the year 2005.

However, in the US, the percentage of immigrants with higher education increased at a much slower level.

Around 80 percent of new immigrants hailing from Asian nations coming to Canada did not have spoken proficiency either in English or in French and this percentage has been going up. However, such immigrants have been facing stiff competition in getting highly paid jobs in Canada, the study findings maintain.

And the wage gap between native-born workers and immigrants worsened from 10 percent in the 1960s to 30 percent in the 1990s. The wage-gap in American continues to persist at 12 percent, the study suggests.