June 2004
Vol. 5, no. 6

• At least one in four recent immigrants with a university degree, who were employed between 1991 and 2001, had a job requiring no more than a high school education. This was twice the proportion of only 12% among native-born Canadians.
• Recent immigrants most likely to have a job requiring no more than a high school education in 2001 came from South or Southeast Asia, had a mother tongue other than English or French, were members of a visible minority and were women. Those least likely to have such jobs were from North America, Northern or Western Europe or Oceania; had a master's degree or doctorate; were trained in applied sciences; and had English as their mother tongue.
• Not only do recent immigrants in low-education jobs have lower earnings than those in university-level jobs, but they also earn less than their Canadian-born counterparts working in the same situation. In 2000, recent immigrants employed full time in low-education jobs had weekly earnings at least 20% lower than their Canadian-born counterparts.
• The difficulty in obtaining university-level jobs is not necessarily a short-term phenomenon. Even after more than 10 years in Canada, at least 21% of employed, university-educated immigrants who arrived between 1985 and 1989 had a low-education job in 2001.

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Authors
Diane Galarneau is with the Labour and Household Surveys Analysis Division. René Morissette is with the Business and Labour Market Analysis Division. Diane Galarneau can be reached at (613) 951-4626, René Morissette at (613) 951-3608, or both at perspectives@statcan.gc.ca.

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