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Stats cheer for immigrants' kids |
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Second-generation Canadians - or children born to immigrants - not only
go on to earn more than their parents, they also earn more on average
than those whose parents were both born in Canada.
Those are the conclusions of a new Statistics Canada study that
investigates the link between the socio-economic status of immigrant
fathers and their Canadian born sons and daughters.
It also gives hope to new immigrants, who have consistently indicated
in our poll (see our home page) that the main reason they want to move
to Canada is to for their children's future.
No only do second-generation children in Canada earn more, they are
also more educated than Canadians of a similar age whose parents were
both born in Canada, according to the study.
Previous studies have shown that in Canada, recent groups of immigrants
have earned as much as 50-60% less than their Canadian-born
counterparts upon arrival in the country. The consequence of this is
that low-income rates among recent immigrants are high, and getting
higher.
On average, only about one-fifth to one-quarter of any earnings
advantage or disadvantage an immigrant father may have is passed on to
his son, according to the just-released StatCan study, which used data
from the 2001 and 1981 censuses.
This is no different than among the Canadian population at large.
Further, there is no correlation at all between paternal earnings and the adult earnings of daughters, the study added.
"These findings suggest that notwithstanding the financial challenges
that past groups of immigrants have faced, their children have on
average done well," StatCan said.
The study showed that Canadian-born men aged 25 to 37 who stated that
their parents were born outside of Canada had more years of schooling
and a greater likelihood of holding a university degree than Canadians
of the same age whose parents were born in the country.
Except for those whose fathers were from the Caribbean, Central and
South America, and Oceania, they also had higher weekly earnings. The
earnings advantage was about 6%, except for those from the traditional
source countries, where it was more than twice as great at 14%.
A similar picture emerged for daughters, though in this case there was
an education and earnings advantage regardless of the origins of the
parents.
But there was a good deal of diversity underlying these average
tendencies according to the country of the parents' origin. Immigrant
fathers with below average earnings were born in every region of the
world, and in many cases their sons had above average earnings as
adults.
The study also found that even though paternal earnings were not
strongly associated with the adult earnings of daughters, the father's
education was an important influence. Fathers from immigrant
communities with high levels of education are able to promote the
education and labour market success of their daughters.
Canadian-born women whose parents were born outside of Canada earned on
average just over $27,000 in 2000 or about $630 per week. In contrast,
those with Canadian-born parents made less than $25,000 or about $575
per week.
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Newsfile 
