Asian immigrants driving education level up in US

The Times of India - Immigrants from Asian nations like India and China, nearly half of them holding at least a bachelor's degree, are raising average education levels in many American states, according to latest official statistics.

Although the number of immigrants in America has reached an all-time high of 37.5 million in 2006, there is significant disparity in education and income levels, the Census Bureau, which released the data, said.

Immigrants from India and China are driving the Asian percentages up in the realm of education either arriving with a bachelor's degree or getting a higher degree upon arrival, the Bureau pointed out.

Asian immigrants are raising average education levels in many states, with nearly half of them holding at least a bachelor's degree.

"There is no one-size-fits-all policy that you could apply for all immigrant groups. I think most of the attention has been on low-skilled workers coming from Mexico. But we have 10 million immigrants from Asia, a number that's growing," Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau said.

About 48% of Asian immigrants held at least a bachelor's degree, compared with about 11 per cent of immigrants from Latin America. Among people born in the US, about 27% were college graduates.

"Driving this are people coming from China and India," Mather said. "They are either coming with a bachelor's degree, or they are coming with visas and getting degrees once they arrive."