Economic and Social Reports, September 2023

There are three new articles available in today's release of Economic and Social Reports.

Increased enrolment by international students is associated with an increase of domestic student enrolment in some fields of study

In recent years, there has been a decrease of domestic student enrolments and a growing number of international students in Canadian postsecondary programs. The article "A comparison of postsecondary enrolment trends between domestic and international students by field of study" examines whether an increase in international student enrolment is associated with an increase in domestic student enrolment across publicly funded Canadian postsecondary institutions during the period of academic years from 2010/2011 to 2019/2020.

Study results reveal that an influx of 100 international students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields was associated with 141 additional domestic student enrolments in the same fields at universities. An increase in the enrolment of 100 international students in business, humanities, health, arts, social science and education programs was associated with 99 additional domestic students in these programs at colleges. These findings are consistent with the notion of cross-subsidization that high tuition fees paid by international students provide resources to maintain or expand some instructional programs and potentially subsidize domestic student enrolments.

Newly-landed immigrants make less use of mortgages, student loans and vehicle loans compared with the Canadian-born

Newly-landed immigrants that have been in Canada for less than two years are more credit invisible (14.8%)—lacking sufficient credit history to have a credit score—than Canadian-born families (7.5%). This is linked to the fact that newly-landed immigrants are more likely to speak neither English nor French, and have on average lower income and assets compared to the Canadian-born. The study "Immigrant credit visibility: Access to credit over time in Canada," looks at the extent to which immigrants to Canada have access to credit, the type of credit they use and possible explanations for differences in credit access and usage compared with the Canadian-born.

The study found that immigrant families that have been in Canada for two to four years become more credit visible than comparable Canadian-born families. However, much of this visibility is due to greater credit card usage and not due to mortgages, student loans and vehicle loans, which new immigrants may have difficulty accessing. Greater access to these larger credit products could speed their integration into Canada and improve their well-being and ability to create wealth. While the study is based on 2016 and 2019 data, it can inform immigrants arriving in Canada today on access to credit.

Immigrant parents' education levels have strong effect on the likelihood of childhood immigrants completing post-secondary education

Many immigrants come to Canada to provide better educational and economic opportunities for their children. In turn, Canada looks to them to bring higher-level skills to the labour market. The article "The effect of parents' education and income on the educational attainment of childhood immigrants" found that among immigrants who arrived in Canada from the 1970s to early 2000s, both fathers' and mothers' education had a similarly strong effect on the likelihood of their children, who immigrated at age 17 or younger, completing a bachelor's degree or higher. Childhood immigrants with two degree-holding parents were 27 percentage points more likely to complete a degree than if both parents had a high school education or less. The effect of parents' education on childhood immigrants completing a degree was weaker among families from East Asia and Southeast Asia than from Europe and English-speaking developed countries. The study also found that family income during the first five years after immigration had only a small effect on childhood immigrants' educational attainment after parental education and other background characteristics were considered.