A Study of the Earning Profiles of Young and Second Generation Immigrants in Canada

Abstract

Using data from the 2006 Canadian Census, this study focuses on differences in earnings between the first-generation, second-generation and third generation immigrants (third generation immigrants are Canadian-born individuals whose parents are both Canadian-born). Seven age groups of immigrants and two sub-groups of second-generation immigrants are introduced: the first group of second-generation immigrants includes individuals with one foreign-born parent and the second one includes those with two foreign-born parents. The paper also defines immigrants who arrived in Canada at the age of 9 or younger as “young immigrants”. For both males and females, the same models were estimated for the first-generation and second-generation immigrants. As in previous studies, the results confirm that the young immigrants have earnings advantages compared to those who arrived as adults. Second-generation immigrants do better than their counterparts who were born to Canadian parents.