Immigrant children more likely to earn degrees

Immigrant children who arrived in Canada before the age of 12 are more likely to earn a university degree than their Canadian born counterparts, according to a Statistics Canada report released Tuesday.

Among male immigrant children who arrived in Canada during the 1980s, 32 per cent had earned a university degree by the time they were between the ages of 25 and 34. Conversely just over 20 per cent of similarly aged Canadian born males had earned a degree. Although the gap has persisted for decades, it has been widening over time. During the 1960s, the university completion rate for immigrant males was six per cent higher. Statistics Canada also reported that a similar trend exists for females, but that participation rates for both Canadian born and immigrant females has been increasing at a faster rate than for males.

Statistics Canada concluded that the growing gap the result of changing source countries for Canadian immigrants. "The composition has been shifting towards countries from which children of immigrant parents have traditionally had high education levels," the report reads.