The Effect of Educational Attainment of Refugees Before Arrival on Earnings in the United States

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  • May 6, 2021
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  • Dowden, Savannah
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Public Policy
Abstract
  • While the link between education and income has been widely established, there exists very little research concerning this relationship for refugees. This paper aims to address this gap by exploring the relationship between refugees’ country-of-origin education, before arrival to the U.S., and their U.S. income. This relationship was analyzed through the use of multiple regression on the 2017 Annual Survey of Refugees dataset - a large, rich dataset for which survey weights were constructed to both account for a refugee’s probability of selection and to ensure the final dataset was representative of the larger refugee population in the U.S. The key findings from this study were that (1) additional years of country-of-origin education lead to higher U.S. earnings and (2) completing secondary school and obtaining a university degree in the country of origin are the only degrees or certificates that impact U.S. earnings, and they both lead to an increase in earnings as compared to a refugee with no degrees from their country of origin. These findings, alongside others, highlight the importance of country-of-origin education and its impact on refugee integration. Policymakers are urged to reevaluate the strict standards by which someone is granted recognition of their foreign-obtained degree, as well as to adopt policies that increase the educational resources available to refugees after arrival to the U.S.
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  • In Copyright
Advisor
  • Summerlin-Long, Jeff
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Public Policy
  • Johnson, Evan
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Public Policy
Degree
  • Bachelor of Science
Graduation year
  • 2021
Language
  • English

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