Washington: A recent analysis done by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), a US based thinktank, revealed that nearly 48% of ‘recent’ immigrants - those arriving in the US between 2018 and 2022 - held a college degree.
Thirty-five percent of all immigrant adults (14.1 million people) had a bachelor’s degree or higher as of 2022, roughly similar to the 36% of all US-born adults (67.8 million) who graduated college, cites this study by Jeanne Batalova, a senior policy analyst.
India led the global pool of educated immigrants, constituting 2 million degree holders, or 14% of the total educated immigrant population. China (including Hong Kong) followed with 1.1 million educated immigrants, making up 7.9% of the total college-educated immigrant population as of 2022. The Philippines and Mexico followed with 7% and 6%, respectively. The analysis relied on data from the US Census Bureau (2022 ACS).
Some college-educated immigrants come to the US on temporary visas for high-skilled workers and researchers, or as family members of US residents, or as humanitarian migrants, or via other paths. Others obtain their education once they are in the US.
The analysis does not reflect the numbers of college educated immigrants as of 2022 as against the stock in each of the previous years. However, it analyses the number of college-educated immigrants arriving between 2018-2022, this inflow was 1.7 million. Nearly 20% of this inflow was from India.
The top five occupational groups for immigrant college graduates were management (16%), computer and mathematical occupations (13%), health practitioners and technicians (11%), business and financial operations (10%), and education and related occupations (9%).
