Immigrant Category of Admission of the Parents and Outcomes of the Children: How far does the Apple Fall?

Immigrants in many Western countries have experienced poor economic outcomes. This has led to a lack of integration of child immigrants (the 1.5 generation) and the second generation in some countries. However, in Canada, child immigrants and the second generation have on average integrated very well economically. We examine the importance of Canada's entry classes and determine if there is an additional benefit of the selection under the Economic Classes, and in particular the Skilled Workers Class, in terms of the earnings outcomes of the child immigrants (the 1.5 generation). Using administrative data on landing records matched with subsequent income tax records, we are able to identify the entry class of child immigrants, and then consider their economic outcomes in Canada. We find that the superior outcomes of the parents who entered as Skilled Workers extends to the children in terms of approximately 18 to 24 percent higher earnings than those whose parent entered under the Family Class of admission. In addition, we find that this earnings advantage persists (at 7 to 15 percent) even after we control for the education, language ability and detailed country of origin of the person's parent who had been the Principal Applicant.