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First 4 Years in Canada: Post-secondary Education Pathways of Highly Educated Immigrants

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Journal of International Migration and Integration / Revue de l'integration et de la migration internationale Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper addresses issues relevant to the socioeconomic integration of highly educated immigrants in Canada by undertaking a secondary analysis of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada. It illustrates the promptness of immigrants’ participation in further post-secondary education (PSE) in Canada within the first 4 years of arrival and proposes a typology of PSE pathways to examine individual, situational, dispositional and immigrant-specific factors that determine adult immigrants’ choices. The Canadian immigrant experience involves the interplay between structural constraints and agency to shape individualized pathways along which newcomers use existing human capital to create new forms of human capital (Canadian credentials) as a strategy to improve their employment opportunities.

Résumé

Cet article utilise les données provenant de l’Enquête longitudinale auprès des immigrants du Canada (ELIC) ayant comme but d’examiner les contraintes de l’intégration socio-économique des immigrants très instruits. L’étude montre que presque la moitié de tous les immigrants adultes s’inscrivent dans un établissement d’enseignement postsecondaire canadien au cours des quatre premières années suivant leur arrivée. L’analyse des voies d’accès à l’éducation postsecondaire (EPS) révèle les conditions personnelles et situationnelles influençant la participation et le choix des immigrants adultes. L’expérience des nouveaux immigrants au Canada exemplifie l’interaction entre l’action d’agents et les contraintes structurelles dont le résultat est des trajectoires individualisées; au long de leur trajectoire professionnelle, les immigrants utilisent leur capital humain pour créer de nouvelles formes de capital humain et symbolique (les qualifications canadiennes) comme stratégie pour améliorer leur chance de trouver un emploi.

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Notes

  1. As described by Bourdieu (1990), habitus comprises a complex set of structures, habits and dispositions that orient and, in some cases compel, individuals to make choices, including PSE destinations.

  2. The sample reduction occurred at each level of selection. About 54% of the LSIC population had university education, about 73% were 25 to 49 years of age and about 91% had no previous contact with Canada before immigration.

  3. First, LSIC has a complex sample design that requires the researcher to account for the stratification and clustering of the sample by employing bootstrap weighting procedures. Statistics Canada provides a bootstrap weights file, and the current analysis employs 500 bootstrap replicate weights. Second, results are presented according to Statistics Canada requirements (counts are rounded to the nearest tens; means and proportions are rounded to the nearest tenth).

  4. The main economic group exhibits the characteristics of skilled worker principal applicants because provincial nominees are only 2.8% of the entire sample.

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Disclaimer

The analyses in this report are based on data from Statistics Canada. The opinions and interpretation expressed by the authors do not represent the views of Statistics Canada.

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  1. Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Maria Adamuti-Trache

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  1. Maria Adamuti-Trache
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Correspondence to Maria Adamuti-Trache.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 7 The estimated logit coefficients, standard errors and significance levels for the multinomial logistic regression model
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Adamuti-Trache, M. First 4 Years in Canada: Post-secondary Education Pathways of Highly Educated Immigrants. Int. Migration & Integration 12, 61–83 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-010-0164-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-010-0164-2

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