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Is STEM Education Portable? Country of Education and the Economic Integration of STEM Immigrants

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Abstract

The core question in this research asks what are the occupational and earnings consequences of place of education for immigrants with bachelor’s degrees or higher and whose highest degrees are in STEM fields compared to the native born. The focus is on immigrants with degrees in 15 countries which represent 88% of the immigration population of interest. In the analysis of the Canadian 2011 National Household Survey, STEM education is matched to three occupational outcomes: employment in STEM occupations, employment in other occupations usually requiring university bachelors’ degrees or higher, and employment in all other occupations which usually require less than university education. The Canadian-born and permanent legal residents whose highest degrees in STEM fields are from institutions in Canada, the USA, the UK, and in the case of the foreign born, France, are more likely to be employed in either STEM occupations or high-skilled occupations requiring bachelors’ degrees than are immigrants educated elsewhere; the latter are more likely to be employed in occupations that are not STEM related and usually do not require bachelor’s degrees. Immigrant disadvantages are stronger for earnings; regardless of the location of their STEM education, immigrants earn less than the Canadian born who received university degrees in Canada. However, the size of the gap varies by the country of the highest degree with the largest gaps, relative to the Canadian born and Canadian educated, observed for immigrants who are educated in countries other than Canada, the USA, the UK, and France.

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Notes

  1. In NOC, managerial occupations form level O. However, the occupational titles for manager are heterogeneous, ranging from senior executives to middle managers, such as retail managers (e.g., variety store managers), food and beverage managers, and agricultural managers; the latter category includes a wide range, such as dairy farmers, chicken farmers, maple syrup producers, and market gardeners (see http://noc.esdc.gc.ca/English/noc/OccupationIndex.aspx?ver=11). As a result of this heterogeneity, occupational titles in level O are not assigned an educationally based “skill” level by the Economic and Social Development Canada which manages the NOC classification scheme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, 725 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, ON, M5S 2J4, Canada

    Monica Boyd

  2. Environics Analytics, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Siyue Tian

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  1. Monica Boyd
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  2. Siyue Tian
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Correspondence to Monica Boyd.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Table 5 Classification of STEM occupations and high-skill occupations
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Appendix 2

Table 6 Multinomial regressions predicting likelihoods of working in STEM occupations, high-skilled occupations versus in all other occupations for STEM degree holders, by CB/FB
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Table 7 OLS models of log weekly earnings for STEM degree holders, by CB/FB (arrived age 25 and older, arrived before year 2010)a, 15 countries of study, and in STEM, high-skilled, or all other occupations, Canada, 2011 NHS
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Boyd, M., Tian, S. Is STEM Education Portable? Country of Education and the Economic Integration of STEM Immigrants. Int. Migration & Integration 19, 965–1003 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-018-0570-4

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