News

Immigrants who arrive in Canada before age 9 more likely to stay in school

posted on May 14, 2014

By Tara, Vancouver Sun | Link to Article

Children who immigrate to Canada as teenagers are much less likely to finish high school than those who come when they are younger, according to a CD Howe Institute report released today.

By Tara, Vancouver Sun | Link to Article

Children who immigrate to Canada as teenagers are much less likely to finish high school than those who come when they are younger, according to a CD Howe Institute report released today.

High school completion rates, an important indicator of future success, drop dramatically for children who arrive in Canada after the age of nine. Dropout rates are about 20 per cent for those who arrive in secondary school, compared with about 15 per cent for boys who arrive before the age of 10 and 10 per cent for girls, according to the findings.

Colin Busby and Miles Corak, authors of the report Don’t Forget The Kids: How Immigration Policy Can Help Immigrants’ Children, take particular aim at the controversial Temporary Foreign Worker program, which they say “needlessly separates children from their parents for long periods, and delays their arrival to the country, raising the risks that they will not reach their full potential in Canada.”

Immigration influences children differently according to their age, the authors argue.

“For example, the capacity to fluently learn a new language declines with the age of first exposure, and it is believed this happens discretely with the onset of puberty.”

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Immigrants+arrive+before+more+likely+stay+school/9837043/story.html#ixzz322BlSswO