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Children of immigrants doing well

Second-generation Canadians are doing well—many are doing better than third-generation Canadians—according to a study of people who were born in Canada to at least one immigrant parent. In general, second-generation Canadians are more educated and earn more on average than Canadians of a similar age whose parents were both born here.

Second-generation Canadian men born from 1964 to 1976 are more likely to hold a university degree than Canadians of the same age whose parents were born in Canada. They also have an earnings advantage—about 6% higher average weekly earnings in 2000—except if their father was born in the Caribbean, Central America, South America or Oceania; those second-generation Canadian men had earnings 14% below the average. On the other hand, if his father came from North America, Northern or Western Europe, the second-generation man’s earnings were 14% above the average.

The picture is similar for second-generation Canadian women, except a father’s country of birth has less impact on his daughter’s education level or earnings. These women earned on average just over $27,000 in 2000, whereas women with two Canadian-born parents made less than $25,000. Women with Asian-born fathers earned 27% above the average, while women with African-born fathers had an earnings advantage of 26%.

In 2001, more than one-third of Canadians aged 16 to 65 were immigrants or the children of immigrants. About 7% were second-generation Canadians with both parents born in another country, while a further 7% to 8% had one parent who was born outside Canada.