University-Educated Immigrants from China to Canada: Rising Number and Discounted Value.

Economic globalization has changed the volume and nature of the world migrant population. This paper explains how and why the pattern of immigration from China to Canada has changed as a result of a rising demand for human capital in Canada and a growth in the supply of university graduates in China. Since 1998, China has emerged as the top immigrant source for Canada, and there is a higher human capital content among recent cohorts of China-born immigrants to Canada. However, evidence from the 2001 Census of Canada indicates that the return on the university credentials of China-born immigrants in many fields of study has been below the Canadian average. The findings suggest that there are severe devaluations of the foreign credentials of China-born immigrants in Canada; the devaluation is more severe for Chinese men than Chinese women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]