Estados Unidos: Recent immigrants to the U.S. are better educated: report

Estados Unidos/Junio de 2017/Autor: Chris Kenning /Fuente: Reuters

Resumen: Casi la mitad de los inmigrantes recientes en Estados Unidos tienen títulos universitarios, lo que refleja un aumento constante en el nivel de instrucción, alimentado en gran parte por el creciente número de personas procedentes de Asia, según un estudio publicado el jueves. El aumento de la inmigración de países como India, China y Filipinas ayudó a aumentar la proporción de llegadas con una licenciatura de 48 por ciento entre 2011 y 2015 de 27 por ciento en los cinco años hasta 1990, según un análisis de los datos del Censo de EE.UU.  Los hallazgos siguieron a los comentarios del presidente Donald Trump en marzo de que los Estados Unidos tenían una «inmigración menos calificada» y debían pasar a un sistema basado en el mérito para atraer a personas que pudieran sostenerse a sí mismos en lugar de recurrir a los recursos públicos. A principios de este año, un proyecto de ley fue presentado en el Congreso para reducir la inmigración legal.

Nearly half the recent immigrants to the United States have college degrees, reflecting a steady increase in educational attainment fueled largely by growing numbers of people from Asia, a study released on Thursday showed.

Rising immigration from countries such as India, China and the Philippines helped increase the share of arrivals with a bachelor’s degree to 48 percent between 2011 and 2015 from 27 percent in the five years through 1990, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data by the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based nonpartisan think tank.

The findings followed comments by President Donald Trump in March that the United States had «lower-skilled immigration» and should switch to a «merit-based» system to attract people who could support themselves rather than strain public resources. Earlier this year, a bill was introduced in Congress to cut back on legal immigration.

The rise in immigrant education levels followed higher investment in education globally, changing attitudes about education and gender, and reduced poverty, said the institute’s senior policy analyst Jeanne Batalova.

Also contributing were recent declines in the number of unauthorized immigrants who are less likely to have degrees, she said. According to the Pew Research Center, a subsidiary of the Pew Charitable Trusts, the number of unauthorized immigrants in 2015 fell below 2009 levels.

Batalova said the increasing «human capital» of better-educated immigrants contrasts with political rhetoric casting them as a burden.

«For a very long time, the perception of immigrants was they had low education, were low-skilled and they came to the U.S. to take advantage of opportunity and benefits,» she said.

«Our study sheds light on the fact that the debates and the public understanding of immigration often lags behind the realities.»

The recent rise in education levels drove up the proportion of all adult immigrants in the United States with college degrees to 30 percent in 2015, from 20 percent in 1990, the study said.

Of those with degrees who arrived between 2010 and 2014, 44 percent were on temporary visas such as H1B visas, used by employers to bring in specialized foreign workers, and 34 percent were permanent residents, holding U.S. green cards. Unauthorized residents accounted for 18 percent, mostly those who overstayed visas, Batalova said.

Among immigrants from Asian countries, 62 percent of recent arrivals were college educated, compared with 40 percent from Africa and 23 percent from Latin America. Among immigrants from India, that proportion reached 86 percent, the study found.

The report defined immigrants as naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, refugees and asylum seekers, those on student, work or other temporary visas, as well as those residing in the United States without authorization.

Fuente: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-report-idUSKBN18S5LA