More Immigrants Have Bachelor’s Than High School Diplomas

Recently The Brookings Institution released a report about the education of the immigrant population in the U.S. The report, “The Geography of Immigrant Skills: Educational Profiles of Metropolitan Areas,” highlighted the growing trend of immigrant contributions to the economy. A release noted:

…analyzes data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) for the nation’s 100 largest metros and finds that, contrary to conventional beliefs, more immigrants have at least a bachelor’s degree than lack a high-school diploma.  It is essential for this country to do a better job supporting high- and low-skilled immigrant workers in order to remain globally competitive.

A few key points from the report include:

• The share of working‐age immigrants in the United States who have a bachelor’s degree has risen considerably since 1980, and now exceeds the share without a high school diploma. In 2010, 30 percent of working‐age immigrants had at least a college degree and 28 percent lacked a high school diploma.  In 1980, just 19 percent of immigrants aged 25 to 64 held a bachelor’s degree, and nearly 40 percent had not completed high school.
• Compared with their U.S.‐born counterparts, low‐skilled immigrants have higher rates of employment and lower rates of household poverty, but also have lower individual earnings, in all types of metro areas. Almost half of immigrants with a bachelor’s degree, across all destinations, appear to be over‐qualified for their jobs.  They are less likely than their native-born counterparts to hold jobs commensurate with their education and more likely to be unemployed.
• Forty‐four (44) of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas are high‐skilled immigrant destinations, where college‐educated immigrants outnumber immigrants without high school diplomas by at least 25 percent. These destinations include large coastal metro areas like San Francisco and Washington, D.C. and in older industrial metros like St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Cleveland. The 30 low‐skill destinations, where the relative sizes of these immigrant skill groups are reversed, include many in the border states of the West and Southwest, as well as in the Great Plains.
• Recent immigrants to metro areas with the fastest‐growing immigrant populations have markedly lower educational attainment than immigrants settling elsewhere. Low‐skilled immigrants are much more likely to arrive from Mexico, less likely to speak English proficiently, more likely to be male, and less likely to be naturalized U.S. citizens than high‐skilled immigrants.

To read the rest of the report, go here.

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