Education Matters: Insights on Education, Learning and Training in Canada

March 2009

Earnings differences between immigrants and the Canadian-born – The role of literacy skills

Immigrants are more highly educated, on average, than their Canadian-born counterparts, yet many of them continue to fare poorly in the labour market. Understanding the role of literacy skills and how these relate to both education - especially education completed outside Canada - and earnings is key to explaining this dichotomy.

Self-reported delinquency of immigrant youth, Toronto 2006

Key characteristics of youth that act as protective factors with respect to delinquent behaviour include having university aspirations, spending most of their time with their families rather than with peers and having a close relationship with their mother. Immigrant youth in Toronto who arrived in Canada after the age of 5 were more likely to exhibit these characteristics and, as a result, were less likely than native-born youth and other immigrant youth to commit delinquent acts.

Quick fact...

Data from the 2006 Census show that in Vancouver and Toronto, one in five school-aged (age 5 to 24) children spoke a language other than English and French at home, making their school populations the most linguistically diverse in Canada ... more