Study: Immigrants admitted to Canada as children have better educational and employment outcomes

A recent Statistics Canada study found that newcomers who settled in the country as children are more likely to pursue higher education – and achieve better economic outcomes.

In fact, this group of newcomers reported higher incomes at age 25 than all other Canadian tax filers.

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The sooner the better

Looking at data available through the Longitudinal Immigrant Database – a massive data model that tracks long-term data on immigrants arriving in Canada – researchers found a positive correlation between how quickly a newcomer was admitted to Canada and the likelihood that they would pursue a post-secondary education . education.

For example, among immigrants who initially settled in Canada at age 4, 77.3% were enrolled in post-secondary education by age 20. This finding was consistent with those who settled in Canada between the ages of 5 and 9: 69.9% of whom participated in post-secondary education; and those who settled in Canada between the ages of 10 and 14 (61.3% of whom attended post-secondary education).

By comparison, only 59.9% of all Canadian tax filers were enrolled in post-secondary education at age 20 – demonstrating that newcomer cohorts had significantly higher participation in post-secondary education, even compared to all Canadians.

This finding paralleled the economic outcomes of newcomers based on how young they were admitted to Canada. Specifically, newcomers admitted to Canada reported higher incomes than the average of all Canadian tax filers in their age group.

Interestingly, however, this finding was not immediate but was delayed due to the age of the tax returns. For example, immigrants admitted to Canada as children had slightly lower average wages than all other Canadian tax filers aged 18 to 24. However, after age 25, the average wage of this newcomer cohort equaled or exceeded the average wage of all Canadian tax filers in the same age range.

At age 30, newcomers admitted to Canada as children had average wages that were 17.6% higher than all other Canadian tax filers in the same age range. These findings are detailed in the chart below.

What do these results indicate?

The results of this study appear to indicate that both higher education participation and labor market outcomes are positively affected for newcomers who arrive in Canada at a young age – with a greater effect for those who arrive in Canada earlier. The study further suggests that newcomers who are admitted into Canada earlier have better outcomes than not only those who arrive in the country later, but also the Canadian population in general. The study does not provide reasons for this phenomenon, and more research is needed to explain how these results come about.

These data add to further literature suggesting a positive correlation between immigrant youth at the time of admission to Canada, and successful economic outcomes in the country – in the short, medium and long term.

Interestingly, other studies have also suggested that the positive relationship between how quickly an immigrant arrives in Canada and their income increases over time. This is also reflected in the scoring weight that the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) assigns to age, with younger newcomers seeing an advantage due to their youth.

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