Better Educated, but Not Better Off
A look at the education level and socioeconomic success of recent immigrants, 2007 to 2017
By Steven A. Camarota and Karen Zeigler on April 17, 2018
Steven A. Camarota is the director of research and Karen Zeigler is a demographer at the Center.
This analysis confirms other recent research showing a dramatic increase in the education level of newly arrived immigrants over the last decade.1 However, our findings show that this increase has not resulted in a significant improvement in labor force attachment, income, poverty, or welfare use for new arrivals. This is true in both absolute terms and relative to the native-born, whose education has not increased as dramatically. In short, new immigrants are starting out as far behind in 2017 as they did in 2007 despite a dramatic increase in their education. Though more research is needed, we explore several possible explanations for this finding.
All figures are for persons 25 to 65; "new immigrants" have been in the United States five years or less.
https://cis.org/Report/Better-Educated-Not-Better
