Vancouver, British Columbia
One key reason that Canada fares better than the United States in international measures of college attainment is that it takes in a better-educated mix of immigrants and does better in educating their children, two representatives of a scholarship foundation established by the Canadian government told an audience here Thursday at the annual conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education.
Andrew Parkin, associate executive director of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, and Noel Baldwin, a policy and research officer there, stressed during their presentations that other factors contribute to Canada's higher college-going rate. Chief among them are the more equitable distribution of income in Canada, which leaves fewer of the nation's children growing up disadvantaged, and the greater college access offered by the Canadian higher-education system through its lower university tuitions and relative abundance of two-year colleges.
But the foundation representatives cited differences in the academic success of immigrants and their children as one of the primary reasons that Canada is faring better. Although a larger share of Canada's population is foreign-born—about 20 percent, compared to 12 percent in the U.S.—the regions of origin are much different. About 52 percent of U.S. immigrants, and 11 percent of Canadian immigrants, come from Latin America, and about 14 percent of U.S. immigrants and 37 percent of Canadian immigrants come from Europe. People from Asia and the Middle East also account for a larger share of the Canadian immigrant stream.
About a third of immigrants in the United States over the age of 25 do not have a high-school diploma, compared to just over one-10th of Canadian immigrants ages 25 to 54, according to the censuses for the two countries. And while the children of Canada's immigrants do better than the immigrants themselves on tests administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Program for International Student Assessment, the children of America's immigrants fare worse, on the whole, than the immigrants, the foundation officials noted.
Comments
1. dank48 - November 06, 2009 at 01:11 pm
I don't suppose there are any significant differences between Canadian and U.S. elementary and secondary schools.
2. kanuk2001 - November 06, 2009 at 03:32 pm
It is interesting that this article tells the story of how better the Canadian immigrants' children are doing, but there is no word about how consistent and invariable the unemployment rate is for Canadian immigrants, regardless of the moment when they have arrived in the country. The picture of how immigrants fare in Canada, not just educationally, is much more complicated than this article depicts, unsurprisingly self-laudatory.
3. greenhills73 - November 06, 2009 at 04:31 pm
The article states some statistics but certainly leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Why are Latin American immigrants less successful educationally than European and Asian immigrants?
4. newsblaze - November 07, 2009 at 04:02 pm
Could it be that Canada doesn't have 7 percent of its population made up of illegal immigrants who think kids should be working in the fields making money rather than getting a solid education? It seems like an unfair comparison.
5. rickinchina09 - November 08, 2009 at 08:43 am
I'd be interested in knowing the comparative drop-out rates from middle school onward. Perhaps statistics on this measure of educational attainment might throw water on newsblaze, if not light on the issue.
6. trailingspouse - November 08, 2009 at 03:23 pm
Many immigrants in US come here due to economic reason - like those crossing the southern borders - most have low level education and don't speak the language. In turn, the new immigrants can't navigate the educational system for their children - they don't really know their options. Their children grow up valuing work more than education, many would drop out in HS. In Canada is totally different - the immigrants who come there have to be highly educated, speak english and have basically perfect health. That's how they screen the immigrants. Canada doesn't face border problem like US have. The situations are just not comparable.
7. pseudotriton - November 09, 2009 at 11:48 am
newsblaze, I'm pretty sure the stats used here are of legal immigrants only. Not sure where you can even obtain numbers of college drop-out rates for illegals. And what's the basis for the statement that illelgal immigrants don't want solid education for their kids? Even illegal immigrants come here with the goal of improving lives of their next generation.
The phenomenon reported here is a direct consequence of the overly-family-oriented immigration policy of the US, which tends to let in people with lower education and skill levels. In contrast, Canadian policies are much friendlier towards highly-skilled immigrants, and it's good for the country in the long run. The edge the US has is that it's still the number one destination for immigrants (including many from Canada), so just by shear size it will attract more educated and skilled people.