IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/stc/stcp3e/2004233e.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Postsecondary Field of Study and the Canadian Labour Market Outcomes of Immigrants and Non-immigrants

Author

Listed:
  • McBride, Stephan
  • Sweetman, Arthur

Abstract

In Canada's federal system for economic (skilled) class immigrant selection, education is treated as if it is homogeneous and only differs in quantity. Some provinces, however, differentiate based on postsecondary field of study. This study explores the economic implications of field of study for each sex, and for two subgroups of immigrants, those educated in Canada and those educated elsewhere . Field of study is not observed to explain much of the earnings difference between immigrants and the Canadian born, though it is relatively more important for males than females in doing so. Interestingly, while there are a few exceptions, a general pattern is observed whereby the differences between high- and low-earning fields are not as large for immigrants as for the Canadian born. Similarly, social assistance receipt has smaller variance across fields for immigrants than for the Canadian born. Nevertheless, substantial inter-field differences are observed for each immigrant group.

Suggested Citation

  • McBride, Stephan & Sweetman, Arthur, 2004. "Postsecondary Field of Study and the Canadian Labour Market Outcomes of Immigrants and Non-immigrants," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 2004233e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    • Handle: RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2004233e
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/11F0019M2004233
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Baker & Dwayne Benjamin, 1995. "The Receipt of Transfer Payments by Immigrants to Canada," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 30(4), pages 650-676.
    2. Alan G. Green & David A. Green, 1995. "Canadian Immigration Policy: The Effectiveness of the Point System and Other Instruments," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 28(4b), pages 1006-1041, November.
    3. Peter S. Li, 2001. "The Market Worth of Immigrants' Educational Credentials," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 27(1), pages 23-38, March.
    4. David Card & Richard B. Freeman, 1993. "Small Differences That Matter: Labor Markets and Income Maintenance in Canada and the United States," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number card93-1, May.
    5. Borjas, George J, 1995. "Assimilation and Changes in Cohort Quality Revisited: What Happened to Immigrant Earnings in the 1980s?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(2), pages 201-245, April.
    6. Chiswick, Barry R, 1978. "The Effect of Americanization on the Earnings of Foreign-born Men," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(5), pages 897-921, October.
    7. George J. Borjas, 1993. "Immigration Policy, National Origin, and Immigrant Skills: A Comparison of Canada and the United States," NBER Chapters, in: Small Differences That Matter: Labor Markets and Income Maintenance in Canada and the United States, pages 21-44, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Baker, Michael & Benjamin, Dwayne, 1994. "The Performance of Immigrants in the Canadian Labor Market," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(3), pages 369-405, July.
    9. George J. Borjas, 1994. "The Economics of Immigration," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 32(4), pages 1667-1717, December.
    10. George J. Borjas, 2021. "Assimilation, Changes in Cohort Quality, and the Earnings of Immigrants," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foundational Essays in Immigration Economics, chapter 2, pages 3-29, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. Card, David & Freeman, Richard B. (ed.), 1993. "Small Differences That Matter," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226092836, Febrero.
    12. James Ted McDonald & Christopher Worswick, 1998. "The Earnings of Immigrant Men in Canada: Job Tenure, Cohort, and Macroeconomic Conditions," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 51(3), pages 465-482, April.
    13. David E. Bloom & Gilles Grenier & Morley Gunderson, 1995. "The Changing Labour Market Position of Canadian Immigrants," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 28(4b), pages 987-1005, November.
    14. Mary L. Grant, 1999. "Evidence of New Immigrant Assimilation in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 32(4), pages 930-955, August.
    15. Joseph Schaafsma & Arthur Sweetman, 2001. "Immigrant earnings: age at immigration matters," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(4), pages 1066-1099, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Casey Warman & Christopher Worswick, 2015. "Technological change, occupational tasks and declining immigrant outcomes: Implications for earnings and income inequality in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(2), pages 736-772, May.
    2. Maude BOULET & Brahim BOUDARBAT, 2015. "The Economic Performance of Immigrants with Canadian Education," Regional and Sectoral Economic Studies, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 15(2), pages 23-40.
    3. Warman, Casey & Worswick, Christopher, 2014. "Technological Change and Declining Immigrant Outcomes, Implications for Income Inequality in Canada," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2014-51, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 25 Nov 2014.
    4. Choon-Lee Chai & Kayla Ueland & Tabitha Phiri, 2018. "The Use of Human Capital and Limitations of Social Capital in Advancing Economic Security among Immigrant Women Living in Central Alberta, Canada," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(11), pages 1-25, November.
    5. Doyle, Matthew & Skuterud, Mikal & Worswick, Christopher, 2023. "The economics of Canadian immigration levels," CLEF Working Paper Series 58, Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. McBride, Stephan & Sweetman, Arthur, 2004. "Domaines d'etudes postsecondaires et resultats sur le marche du travail canadien des immigrants et des non-immigrants," Direction des études analytiques : documents de recherche 2004233f, Statistics Canada, Direction des études analytiques.
    2. David A. Green & Christopher Worswick, 2017. "Canadian economics research on immigration through the lens of theories of justice," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(5), pages 1262-1303, December.
    3. Sweetman, Arthur, 2004. "Immigrant Source Country Educational Quality and Canadian Labour Market Outcomes," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 2004234e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    4. James Ted Mcdonald & Christopher Worswick, 1999. "The Earnings of Immigrant Men in Australia: Assimilation, Cohort Effects, and Macroeconomic Conditions," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 75(1), pages 49-62, March.
    5. Abdurrahman Aydemir, 2013. "Skill-based immigrant selection and labor market outcomes by visa category," Chapters, in: Amelie F. Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Migration, chapter 23, pages 432-452, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr, 2011. "Economic Impacts of Immigration: A Survey," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 24(1), pages 1-32, Spring.
    7. Hou, Feng & Picot, Garnett, 2003. "The Rise in Low-income Rates Among Immigrants in Canada," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 2003198e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    8. Picot, Garnett & Sweetman, Arthur, 2005. "The Deteriorating Economic Welfare of Immigrants and Possible Causes: Update 2005," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 2005262e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    9. Green, David A. & Worswick, Christopher, 2012. "Immigrant earnings profiles in the presence of human capital investment: Measuring cohort and macro effects," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 241-259.
    10. Daniel Parent & Christopher Worswick, 2004. "Immigrant Labour Market Performance and Skilled Immigrant Selection: The International Experience," CIRANO Project Reports 2004rp-07, CIRANO.
    11. Casey Warman, 2007. "Ethnic enclaves and immigrant earnings growth," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 40(2), pages 401-422, May.
    12. Crossley, T.F. & McDonald, J.T. & Worswick, C., 1999. "Immigrant Benefit Receipt: Sensitivity to the Choice of Survey years and Model Specification," Papers 370, Australian National University - Department of Economics.
    13. Derek Hum & Wayne Simpson, 2002. "Analysis of the Performance of Immigrant Wages Using Panel Data," 10th International Conference on Panel Data, Berlin, July 5-6, 2002 C2-1, International Conferences on Panel Data.
    14. Jackie M. L. Chan, 2014. "Assimilation of Hong Kong Immigrants in Canada," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(4), pages 439-465, October.
    15. Gilles Grenier & Yi Zhang, 2016. "The “Negative” Assimilation of Immigrants: a Counter-Example from the Canadian Labor Market," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 263-286, September.
    16. Bauer, Thomas K. & Lofstrom, Magnus & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2000. "Immigration Policy, Assimilation of Immigrants and Natives' Sentiments towards Immigrants: Evidence from 12 OECD-Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 187, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Ahmed, Nina, 2005. "Intergenerational Impact of Immigrants' Selection and Assimilation on Health Outcomes of Children," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 2005247e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    18. Richard A. Wanner, 2003. "Entry Class and the Earnings Attainment of Immigrants to Canada, 1980­1995," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 29(1), pages 53-71, March.
    19. Abdurrahman Aydemir & Arthur Sweetman, 2007. "First- and Second-Generation Immigrant Educational Attainment and Labor Market Outcomes: A Comparison of the United States and Canada," Research in Labor Economics, in: Immigration, pages 215-270, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    20. Derek Hum & Wayne Simpson, 2007. "The legacy of immigration: labour market performance and education in the second generation," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(15), pages 1985-2009.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2004233e. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Mark Brown (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/stagvca.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.