Hur går det för olika kategorier invandrare i Nordamerika?

Tre nya studier som undersöker hur det går för olika kategorier invandrare i USA och Kanada.

Jennifer Hunt, 2010, Which Immigrants Are Most Innovative and Entrepreneurial? Distinctions by Entry Visa, IZA DP No. 4745

Using the 2003 National Survey of College Graduates, I examine how immigrants perform relative to natives in activities likely to increase U.S. productivity, according to the type of visa on which they first entered the United States. Immigrants who first entered on a student/trainee visa or a temporary work visa have a large advantage over natives in wages, patenting, commercializing or licensing patents, and publishing. In general, this advantage is explained by immigrants’ higher education and field of study, but this is not the case for publishing, and immigrants are more likely to start companies than natives with similar education. Immigrants without U.S. education and who arrived at older ages suffer a wage handicap, which offsets savings to the United States from their having completed more education abroad. Immigrants who entered with legal permanent residence do not outperform natives for any of the outcomes considered.

Valerie Preston, Nina Damsbaek, Philip Kelly, Maryse Lemoine, Lucia Lo, John Shields, Steven Tufts, 2010, How do gender and country of birth affect labour market outcomes for immigrants?

• Immigrant men and women have lower annual earnings than their Canadian-born counterparts.
• Average earnings increase the longer immigrants have been in Canada. There is a large gap in annual income increases with more recent periods of immigration, for both sexes and for most countries of origin.
• Immigrant annual earnings vary among countries of origin. Immigrants from Hong Kong and Guyana have the highest earnings among immigrants; immigrants from Pakistan and China have the lowest annual earnings among immigrants.
• Immigrant men and women have higher unemployment rates than Canadian-born men and women.
• Unemployment rates tend to increase with more recent periods of immigration; the participation rate remains stable across periods of immigration.
• The unemployment and participation rates for immigrants vary by country of birth.


John Shields, Mai Phan, Fang Yang, Philip Kelly, Maryse Lemoine, Lucia Lo, Valerie Preston, Steven Tufts, 2010, Do immigrant class and gender affect labour market outcomes for immigrants?

• Principal applicants in the skilled worker category, both men and women, had better labour outcomes than immigrants who entered under other immigration classes. They were more likely to be employed, and be working in their area of training/education, had taken less time to find their first job, had shorter jobless spells and earned more than other groups.
• Refugees, both men and women, faced more difficulties even four years after arrival. They were more likely to have high unemployment rates, more jobless spells, longer time taken to secure their first job in Canada, and lower earnings.
• Immigrant men had overall better labour outcomes than immigrant women, including higher labour force participation rates.
• Within their first four years in Canada, all immigrants had higher unemployment rates than the working population as a whole, regardless of immigration class.