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First- and Second-Generation Immigrant Educational Attainment and Labor Market Outcomes: A Comparison of the United States and Canada

In: Immigration

Author

Listed:
  • Abdurrahman Aydemir
  • Arthur Sweetman

Abstract

The educational and labor market outcomes of the first, first-and-a-half (1.5), second, and third generations of immigrants to the United States (US) and Canada are compared. These countries’ immigration policies have diverged on important dimensions since the 1960s, resulting in large differences in immigrant source country distributions and a much larger emphasis on skill requirements in Canada, making for interesting comparisons. Of particular note is the educational attainment of US immigrants which is currently lower than that in Canada and is expected to influence future second generations causing an existing education gap to grow. This will likely in turn influence earnings where, controlling only for age, the current US second generation has earnings comparable to those of the third generation, whereas the Canadian second generation has higher earnings. Importantly, the role of, and returns to, observable characteristics are significantly different between the US and Canada. Observable characteristics explain little of the difference in earnings outcomes across generations in the US but have remarkable explanatory power in Canada. Controlling for a wide array of characteristics, especially education, has little effect on the US second generation's earnings premium, but causes the Canadian premium to become negative relative to the Canadian third generation. The Canadian 1.5 and second generations’ educational advantage is of benefit in the labor market, but does not receive the same rate of return as it does for the third generation causing a very sizable gap between the current good observed outcomes, and the even better outcomes that would be expected if the 1.5 and second generation received the same rate of return to their characteristics as the third generation. Why the US differs likely follows from a combination of its lower immigration rate, its different selection mechanism, and its settlement policies and practices.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:rleczz:s0147-9121(07)00006-4
    DOI: 10.1016/S0147-9121(07)00006-4
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    2. Kelly Foley, 2012. "Can neighbourhoods change the decisions of youth on the margins of university participation?," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 45(1), pages 167-188, February.
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    4. Douglas Almond & Lena Edlund & Kevin Milligan, 2009. "O Sister, Where Art Thou? The Role of Son Preference and Sex Choice: Evidence from Immigrants to Canada," NBER Working Papers 15391, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Sweetman, A. & van Ours, J.C., 2014. "Immigration : What About the Children and Grandchildren?," Discussion Paper 2014-009, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    6. Carmen Aina & Giorgia Casalone & Paolo Ghinetti, 2008. "Internal Geographical Mobility And Educational Outcomes. An Analysis For An Italian Province," Working Papers 120, SEMEQ Department - Faculty of Economics - University of Eastern Piedmont.
    7. Kucera, Miroslav, 2008. "The Educational Attainment of Second Generation Immigrants in Canada: Analysis based on the General Social Survey," MPRA Paper 14036, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Marina Gindelsky, 2019. "Testing the acculturation of the 1.5 generation in the United States: Is there a “critical” age of migration?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 31-65, March.
    9. Stefanie Schurer, 2008. "Labour Market Outcomes of Second Generation Immigrants: How Heterogeneous Are They Really?," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2008n14, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    10. Nguyen, Ha Trong & Connelly, Luke & Le, Huong Thu & Mitrou, Francis & Taylor, Catherine & Zubrick, Stephen, 2018. "Explaining the evolution of ethnicity differentials in academic achievements: The role of time investments," MPRA Paper 90534, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Anthony Edo & Lionel Ragot & Hillel Rapoport & Sulin Sardoschau & Andreas Steinmayr & Arthur Sweetman, 2020. "An introduction to the economics of immigration in OECD countries," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(4), pages 1365-1403, November.
    12. Hou, Feng & Picot, Garnett, 2010. "Preparing for Success in Canada and the United States: the Determinants of Educational Attainment Among the Children of Immigrants," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2010-13, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 30 Apr 2010.
    13. repec:bla:ecorec:v:85:y:2009:i:s1:p:s59-s73 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Neeraj Kaushal & Yao Lu & Nicole Denier & Julia Shu-Huah Wang & Stephen J. Trejo, 2016. "Immigrant employment and earnings growth in Canada and the USA: evidence from longitudinal data," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(4), pages 1249-1277, October.
    15. Timothy Smeeding & Jonathan Gershuny & Karen Robson & Coady Wing, 2009. "Income Poverty and Income Support for Minority and Immigrant Children in Rich Countries," LIS Working papers 527, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    16. Hou, Feng & Picot, Garnett, 2009. "Seeking Success in Canada and the United States: the Determinants of Labour Market Outcomes Among the Children of Immigrants," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2009-63, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 28 Nov 2009.
    17. Stefani Schurer, 2008. "Labour Market Outcomes of Second Generation Immigrants: How Heterogeneous Are They Really?," Ruhr Economic Papers 0057, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    18. Liu, Xingfei, 2014. "Educational Attainment of Second-Generation Immigrants: A U.S.-Canada Comparison," IZA Discussion Papers 8685, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Ran Abramitzky & Victor Lavy, 2014. "How Responsive Is Investment in Schooling to Changes in Redistributive Policies and in Returns?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(4), pages 1241-1272, July.
    20. 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.
    21. Picot, Garnett & Sweetman, Arthur, 2011. "Canadian Immigration Policy and Immigrant Economic Outcomes: Why the Differences in Outcomes between Sweden and Canada?," IZA Policy Papers 25, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    22. Waad K. Ali & K. Bruce Newbold, 2020. "Geographic variations in precarious employment outcomes between immigrant and Canadian‐born populations," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(5), pages 1185-1213, October.
    23. Jiang, Shiyu, 2020. "Task Supply, Wage Earning, and Segmentation among Natives and Two Generations of Immigrants," MPRA Paper 103990, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    24. Michael Landesmann & Mario Liebensteiner & Robert Stehrer, 2010. "Migrants and Economic Performance in the EU15: their allocations across countries, industries and job types and their (productivity) growth impacts at the sectoral and regional levels," FIW Research Reports series II-009, FIW.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • I29 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Other

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