Immigrants help raise Canada’s higher education rate

Immigrants have helped make Canada one of the world’s most educated country, new data shows.

Not only do a high percentage of new immigrants to the country arrive with a degree or equivalent due to Canada’s immigration requirements, but their children are also more likely to go on higher education than those born in Canada.

An Immigration Department report, obtained through an access to information request, found 36 per cent of the children of immigrants aged 25 to 35 held university degrees. This compared to just 24 per cent of their peers with Canadian-born parents.

The data shows that China and India are the top immigration source countries for children with degrees. By comparison, between 30 and 37 per cent of children to immigrants from Western Europe completed university, followed by those from Latin America and the Caribbean at a rate ranging from 23 to 28 per cent — about par with children with Canadian-born parents, the report said.

“The educational attainment of the parents matters; children with highly educated parents are more likely to be highly educated themselves,” said the report’s researcher, Garnett Picot, of the department’s research and evaluation unit. “And immigrant parents in Canada tend to have higher levels of educational attainment than Canadian-born parents.

“Parents’ expectations regarding education matters, and immigrant families, particularly Asian families, tend to have higher educational expectations for their children, on average, than families with Canadian-born parents,” the report added.

Article published 6th February 2018