A new Statistics Canada report finds that immigrant women are more likely than Canadian-born counterparts to hold a university degree, yet often face higher levels of unemployment. In addition, university-educated immigrant women were more likely than Canadian-born women to report working in a job requiring less education. Some figures from the report:
- In 2011, almost 40 percent of immigrant women held a university degree at the bachelor’s level or higher compared with just over 25 percent of Canadian born women
- Women who immigrated to Canada within five years of the survey had an unemployment rate of almost 15 percent compared to 10 perfect for recently immigrant men, and six percent for Canadian-born men
- Almost half of all working-age immigrant women with university degrees were employed in positions that do not typically require degrees compared with 30 percent of Canadian-born women
- Immigrant men were less likely than immigrant women to report a mismatch between educational requirements with 41 percent overall employed in positions
For more information, please visit the Statistics Canada website.