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Immigrant earnings: age at immigration matters
Author(s) -
Schaafsma Joseph,
Sweetman Arthur
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
canadian journal of economics/revue canadienne d'économique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1540-5982
pISSN - 0008-4085
DOI - 10.1111/0008-4085.00113
Subject(s) - immigration , earnings , queen (butterfly) , citation , sociology , library science , history , political science , law , economics , accounting , computer science , hymenoptera , botany , biology
A correlation between age at immigration and earnings is observed in Canadian census data. The evidence supports three underlying sources of the effect; first, work experience in the source country yields virtually no return in the host country; second, the return to education varies with age at immigration, and, finally, an "acculturation" effect is observed for immigrants who are visible minorities or whose mother tongue is not English. Further, it is found that educational attainment, and relatedly earnings, vary systematically across age at immigration with those arriving around age 15 to 18 obtaining fewer years of education.