Canadian immigration boosting up the proportion of university-educated people in the country

An analysis of 2006 census figures carried out by the Association for Canadian Studies proves that Canadian immigration policies are one of the key reasons that boosting the number of people in the country having a university degree.

According to the study, visible minorities such as Chinese, South Asians, Blacks, Arabs, Filipinos, Southeast Asians, Latin Americans, Japanese, Koreans etc. are far more likely to have a university education than white Canadians. At present, there is 20-point gap between visible minorities and white Canadians aged 35-44 years old when it comes to university education.

The group with the highest proportion of university-educated people was Korean Canadians, where 74.7 per cent of respondents in the age group analyzed had a university degree. Filipino and Chinese Canadians were in second and third place with about 58.6 and 58.4 per cent of their community holding university degrees. Arab Canadians weren't far behind with university graduates making up 51.6 per cent of the population. The study found 48.5 per cent of Japanese Canadians had graduated university followed by 47.8 per cent of West Asians and 47.4 per cent of South Asians.

The levels of university education were significantly lower for Latin Americans, 33 per cent of whom had a degree, and for the black community, where 30.1 per cent had completed university.

However, the groups that were the least likely to have a university degree were white Canadians – particularly white males – only 25.9 per cent of whom had graduated university, and those from Southeast Asia where only 22 per cent had a degree.

Study also found that the gap is getting larger due to a fact that existing immigration policies favor those new immigrants who have university degree. After their arrival, these people widely encourage their children to obtain a degree of university level. The result is that the overall level of university degree holders in Canada has risen.

According to Statistics Canada, 51 per cent of people who immigrated to Canada between 2001 and 2006 had university degrees - much higher than the proportion of 20 per cent of university degree holders among the Canadian-born population or the 28 per cent among immigrants who arrived prior to 2001.