New England Public Radio: Foreign born men and women earning more advanced degrees
New England Public Radio interviewed Susan Strate, the Population Estimates Program manager for the Economic and Public Policy Research group at the UMass Donahue Institute about her research on the changing education levels of Massachusetts immigrants. Through an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, Strate found that while native born residents have a higher rate of bachelors degrees than their foreign born counterparts, immigrants have a higher rate of advanced degrees.
"In Massachusetts 23 percent of the native born have a bachelors degree or higher, and among the foreign born, it is 17 percent. But then when you get to the advance degree, that actually starts to reverse out, where a higher percentage of the foreign born has an advanced degree—that is, a masters degree or higher—compared to the native born."
Strate says the findings tend to be contrary with what is known about new immigrant populations.
"It probably is due to some of the higher tech industries that are advancing in Massachusetts and courting, bringing in and retaining foreign born workers who have these advanced degrees."
Read article: Foreign born men and women earning more advanced degrees
March 26, 2013
