The Relative Labour Market Performance of Former International Students: Evidence from the Canadian National Graduates Survey

39 Pages Posted: 25 Apr 2017

See all articles by Zong Chen

Zong Chen

University of Waterloo

Mikal Skuterud

Statistics Canada

Abstract

Canada is increasingly looking to international students as a source of postsecondary tuition revenues and new immigrants. By 2014, international students accounted for 10% of graduates from Canadian postsecondary institutions, up from 3% in 2000, and 11% of new permanent residents, up from 7% in 2010. This article compares the labour market performance of former international students (FISs) entering the Canadian labour market during the first decade of the 2000s to their Canadian-born-and-educated (CBE) and foreign-born-and-educated (FBE) counterparts. We find that FISs outperform FBE immigrants by a substantial margin and underperform CBE individuals graduating from similar academic programs by a relatively modest margin. We also find some limited evidence, particularly among women, of a deterioration in FIS outcomes through the 2000s relative to both comparison groups. We argue that this deterioration is consistent with a quality tradeoff as postsecondary institutions and governments have reached deeper into international student pools to meet their demands for students and new immigrants without a commensurate increase in their supply.

Keywords: international students, labour market integration, immigrant selection policy

JEL Classification: I23, J61, J31

Suggested Citation

Chen, Zong and Skuterud, Mikal, The Relative Labour Market Performance of Former International Students: Evidence from the Canadian National Graduates Survey. IZA Discussion Paper No. 10699, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2956794 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2956794

Zong Chen (Contact Author)

University of Waterloo

Waterloo, N2L 3G1
Canada

Mikal Skuterud

Statistics Canada ( email )

Ottawa, Ontario
Canada

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