School Performance Comparison between the immigrant Children and their Canadian peers

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A recent study published by Statistics Canada has found that children of immigrants do better than children with Canadian-born parents in terms of socioeconomic outcomes, with children of immigrants graduating high school at a rate of 91.6%, compared with 88.8% for children who were Canadian at birth.

The findings showed that there are large differences in the socioeconomic outcomes of these childhood immigrants based on their parents’ admission class.

According to the data, these differences exist for two major reasons:

 The differences in the parents’ education and official language ability; and,

 The distinctive pre- and post-migration circumstances experienced by the various admission classes.

In terms of educational attainment, the children of skilled workers and business immigrants were found to have the highest university completion rates, with 49.7% and 58.9%, respectively, graduating university. Children of refugees had the second highest university completion rates, at an average of 29.9%. These findings show that children of skilled workers, business immigrants, and refugees all have higher average levels of educational attainment than third generation Canadians, of which only 24% graduate university.

Both children of live-in caregivers and those in the family class, however, had lower educational attainment levels than children of Canadian-born parents. These childhood immigrants had a university completion rate approximately one-third of the rate for children of business class immigrants.

Following suit, the children of economic immigrants were also found to have the highest earnings, with the children of both skilled workers and business class immigrants earning an average of more than $46,300, slightly higher than the average for non-immigrant children ($46,100).

Interestingly, differences by admission class in the educational outcomes of childhood immigrants were less pronounced for children who arrived in Canada at pre-school-age than for those who arrived during adolescence. This finding demonstrates that early exposure to Canadian society can help to mitigate the potential effects of the immigrant parents’ level of education or English or French language ability on their children.

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