|
College-educated immigrants in the United States are more likely to have advanced degrees and to major in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and health fields than their U.S.-born peers with college degrees. For these reasons, the average monthly earnings of immigrant college graduates exceed those of U.S.-born graduates. These findings come from a Migration Policy Institute (MPI) analysis of a survey that tests skills needed for full participation in today’s increasingly knowledge-based world.
Researchers Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix were able to examine the inter-relationships between adults’ cognitive skills (literacy, numeracy and digital) and economic outcomes, including workers’ job quality and skill underutilization.
Among key findings in The Skills and Economic Outcomes of Immigrant and U.S.-Born College Graduates:
- Sixty percent of immigrant college graduates have at least a master’s degree versus 53 percent of the U.S. born with college degrees. Two-thirds of immigrants in the sample earned their highest degree in the United States.
- Immigrants’ degrees are more heavily concentrated in the high-demand STEM and health fields than those held by the U.S. born: 51 percent versus 36 percent.
- Immigrant graduates who work full time reported having higher monthly earnings than U.S.-born workers — $7,140 versus $6,500 — in large part because immigrants are more likely to have graduate-level degrees and to have majored in STEM or other in-demand fields. Further, immigrants’ self-reported job quality — their autonomy at work, managerial responsibilities and job satisfaction — roughly equal those of the U.S. born.
|
KJ
|
