2001/2002 PCERII Funded Research Abstract
| Research Title: | Training Activity by Adult Immigrants in Canada |
| Research Team: | Derek
Hum University of Manitoba- Principal Investigator Wayne Simpson University of Manitoba |
| Research Domain(s): | Economic |
A potentially important component of immigrant assimilation is human capital accumulation. This paper analyzes immigrant training experience beyond formal schooling compared to the native born using the 1998 Adult and Education Survey (AETS) master file, which contains information on immigrant status for the first time. We propose a model of training incidence and duration, which identifies core economic factors affecting training as well as factors related to personal and job heterogeneity, to estimate the differential experience of immigrants.
We estimate that immigrant men who are already training receive 28 fewer hours of training annually, other factors considered, which implies that immigrant men as a group receive 7 fewer hours of training than Canadian-born men. This training disadvantage for immigrant men appears to be entirely borne by those who immigrate as adults. Men who immigrate as adults receive only about half the training of native born men or men who immigrate as children. There also is a significant and large training deficit for black men, which is similar in size for immigrants and those born in Canada. We find no significant difference in training between immigrant and native born women once we control for other factors, nor is there any significant difference in training based on age at immigration. The results for men and women are comparable, but somewhat larger in magnitude, when we use a measure of work-related training.
The AETS also asks respondents their reasons for not taking the training. The results indicate that immigrants and immigrants as adults are more likely to indicate a financial constraint, a language barrier, and insufficient qualifications or prerequisites for training. While these problems may offer policy guidance to assist immigrant assimilation, the results are similar for men and women and do not therefore provide an explanation for the differential training experience of immigrant men and women relative to their native born counterparts.
See Derek Hum & Wayne Simpson, "Adult Immigrants: how well are they trained?" Education Quarterly Review. 2003, Vol.9, no.3, for further details.