Job-Related Training Activity by Immigrants to Canada

The 1998 Adult Education and Training Survey (AETS) identifies immigrants for the first time and is used to compare the training experiences of immigrants and native-born Canadians. Previous Canadian research indicates that immigrants generally acquire less human capital after arrival than the native-born. Further, if foreign human capital has reduced value in the host labour market, training will be limited for older migrants. We find that training is reduced by about one year for each year that migration is delayed for both men and women in both pooled and separate samples of immigrants and the native-born. Immigrants who arrive in Canada as adults train less than those who arrive as children, while immigrants who arrive as children do about as well as the native-born. Financial constraints may explain some of the training disadvantage, but other common explanations, such as language, are rejected.