IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp4448.html

An Explanation for the Lower Payoff to Schooling for Immigrants in the Canadian Labour Market

Author

Listed:
  • Chiswick, Barry R.

    (George Washington University)

  • Miller, Paul W.

    (Curtin University)

Abstract

This paper examines the difference between the payoffs to schooling for immigrants and the native born in Canada, using 2001 Census data. Analyses are presented for males and females. Comparisons are offered with findings for the US. The paper uses the Overeducation/Required education/Undereducation framework (Hartog, 2000) and a decomposition developed by Chiswick and Miller (2008). This decomposition links overeducation to the less-than-perfect international transferability of immigrants' human capital, and under-education to favourable selection in immigration. The results show that immigrants have a lower payoff to schooling because of the different effects under-education and over-education have on their earnings. The effects of under-education, or selection in immigration, are, however, twice as large as the effects of over-education, or limited international transferability of human capital. Favourable selection in immigration appears to be less important in Canada than in the US, where it predominates among the least educated.

Suggested Citation

  • Chiswick, Barry R. & Miller, Paul W., 2009. "An Explanation for the Lower Payoff to Schooling for Immigrants in the Canadian Labour Market," IZA Discussion Papers 4448, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4448
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp4448.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hartog, Joop, 2000. "Over-education and earnings: where are we, where should we go?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 131-147, April.
    2. Chiswick, Barry R. & Miller, Paul W., 2008. "Why is the payoff to schooling smaller for immigrants?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 1317-1340, December.
    3. Friedberg, Rachel M, 2000. "You Can't Take It with You? Immigrant Assimilation and the Portability of Human Capital," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(2), pages 221-251, April.
    4. Chiswick, Barry R, 1978. "The Effect of Americanization on the Earnings of Foreign-born Men," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(5), pages 897-921, October.
    5. Baker, Michael & Benjamin, Dwayne, 1994. "The Performance of Immigrants in the Canadian Labor Market," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(3), pages 369-405, July.
    6. Barry R. Chiswick, 1999. "Are Immigrants Favorably Self-Selected? An Economic Analysis," University of Chicago - George G. Stigler Center for Study of Economy and State 147, Chicago - Center for Study of Economy and State.
    7. Chiswick, Barry R. & Miller, Paul W., 2010. "Does the choice of reference levels of education matter in the ORU earnings equation?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 1076-1085, December.
    8. William Fellner, 1979. "Contemporary Economic Problems, 1979," Books, American Enterprise Institute, number 918293, September.
    9. Heather Antecol & Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Stephen J. Trejo, 2003. "Immigration Policy and the Skills of Immigrants to Australia, Canada, and the United States," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 38(1).
    10. Barry Chiswick, 1999. "Are Immigrants Favorably Self-Selected?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 181-185, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ivana Fellini & Raffaele Guetto & Emilio Reyneri, 2018. "Poor Returns to Origin-Country Education for Non-Western Immigrants in Italy: An Analysis of Occupational Status on Arrival and Mobility," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(3), pages 34-47.
    2. Jhon James Mora & Maribel Castillo Caicedo & Gustavo Adolfo Gómez, 2022. "Migration and Overeducation of Venezuelans in the Colombian Labor Market," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(2), pages 503-517, June.
    3. Ivana Fellini & Raffaele Guetto & Emilio Reyneri, 2018. "Poor Returns to Origin-Country Education for Non-Western Immigrants in Italy: An Analysis of Occupational Status on Arrival and Mobility," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(3), pages 34-47.
    4. Chiswick, Barry R. & Miller, Paul W., 2009. "ORU Analyses of Immigrant Earnings in Australia, with International Comparisons," IZA Discussion Papers 4422, IZA Network @ LISER.
    5. Pernilla Joona & Nabanita Gupta & Eskil Wadensjö, 2014. "Overeducation among immigrants in Sweden: incidence, wage effects and state dependence," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-23, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chiswick, Barry R. & Miller, Paul W., 2009. "ORU Analyses of Immigrant Earnings in Australia, with International Comparisons," IZA Discussion Papers 4422, IZA Network @ LISER.
    2. Chiswick, Barry R. & Miller, Paul W., 2008. "Why is the payoff to schooling smaller for immigrants?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 1317-1340, December.
    3. Irena Kogan, 2015. "The role of immigration policies for immigrants’ selection and economic success," ImPRovE Working Papers 15/05, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    4. Esteve Sanromá & Raúl Ramos & Hipólito Simón, 2015. "Portability of Human Capital and Immigrant Overeducation in Spain," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 34(2), pages 223-241, April.
    5. Jason Dean, 2018. "Does it matter if immigrants work in jobs related to their education?," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 8(1), pages 1-42, December.
    6. Sandra Nieto & Alessia Matano & Raul Ramos, 2013. "“Skill mismatches in the EU: Immigrants vs. natives”," AQR Working Papers 201310, University of Barcelona, Regional Quantitative Analysis Group, revised Oct 2013.
    7. Mariele Macaluso, 2022. "The influence of skill-based policies on the immigrant selection process," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(2), pages 595-621, July.
    8. José Mata & Claudia Alves, 2018. "The survival of firms founded by immigrants: Institutional distance between home and host country, and experience in the host country," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(11), pages 2965-2991, November.
    9. McHale, John & Rogers, Keith, 2009. "Selecting Economic Immigrants: An Actuarial Approach," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2009-64, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 28 Nov 2009.
    10. Zhiling Wang & Thomas de Graaff & Peter Nijkamp, 2018. "Barriers of Culture, Networks, and Language in International Migration: A Review," REGION, European Regional Science Association, vol. 5, pages 73-89.
    11. Shan Li, 2016. "The determinants of Mexican migrants’ duration in the United States: family composition, psychic costs, and human capital," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-28, December.
    12. Jens Ruhose, 2015. "Microeconometric Analyses on Economic Consequences of Selective Migration," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 61, July.
    13. Dustmann, Christian & Glitz, Albrecht, 2011. "Migration and Education," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 327-439, Elsevier.
    14. Deborah Cobb-Clark & Marie D. Connolly & Christopher Worswick, 2001. "The Job Search and Investments of Immigrant Families," CEPR Discussion Papers 432, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    15. Shan Li, 2016. "The determinants of Mexican migrants’ duration in the United States: family composition, psychic costs, and human capital," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-28, December.
    16. Lubomira Anastassova, 2010. "Are Immigrants Paid Less for Education?," LIS Working papers 535, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    17. Sanromá, Esteban & Ramos, Raul & Simón, Hipólito, 2008. "The Portability of Human Capital and Immigrant Assimilation: Evidence for Spain," IZA Discussion Papers 3649, IZA Network @ LISER.
    18. Knize Estrada, Veronika J., 2018. "Migrant women labor-force participation in Germany : Human capital, segmented labor market, and gender perspectives," IAB-Discussion Paper 201812, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    19. Chiswick, Barry R. & Miller, Paul W., 2009. "Educational Mismatch: Are High-Skilled Immigrants Really Working at High-Skilled Jobs and the Price They Pay If They Aren't?," IZA Discussion Papers 4280, IZA Network @ LISER.
    20. Carlo Dell’Aringa & Claudio Lucifora & Laura Pagani, 2015. "Earnings differentials between immigrants and natives: the role of occupational attainment," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-18, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4448. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Mark Fallak (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaalu.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.