Immigration in Education: How Many U.S Teachers Are Immigrants?

According to a 2019 report from George Mason University, approximately 857,200 of the estimated 8.1 million teachers in the U.S. are immigrants.

Here are a few more takeaways from the report:

• More than half of foreign-born teachers are U.S. citizens. Approximately 56 percent of all foreign-born teachers are naturalized citizens.
• Immigrant non-post-secondary teachers are slightly older than their native-born peers, while immigrant post-secondary teachers are younger than their native-born counterparts.
• With the exception of immigrant post-secondary teachers, foreign-born teachers are more likely to be female.
• Immigrant teachers are significantly more likely than native-born teachers to have a master's, professional, or doctoral degree (57 percent versus 49 percent).
• The top five countries of origin among immigrant non-postsecondary teachers are: Mexico (15 percent), India (5 percent), the Philippines (5 percent), Canada (4 percent), and Cuba (3
  percent).
• The top five countries of origin among immigrant post-secondary teachers are: China (17 percent), India (12 percent), Korea (5 percent), Canada (4 percent), and Mexico (3 percent).
• Forty-four percent of foreign-born teachers arrived in the United States more than 20 years ago, but post-secondary teachers tend to be more recent arrivals.
• A large share of noncitizen post-secondary teachers are also students. Among post-secondary teachers, 46 percent of noncitizens reported they are currently in school, compared to 24 percent of native-born teachers and 14 percent of naturalized U.S. citizens.
• Immigrants are underrepresented in non-postsecondary occupations, in part due to barriers including work authorization, educational requirements, and licensing and certification.
• Of the estimated 1.8 million post-secondary teachers in the United States, approximately 393,100 teachers (22 percent) are foreign-born. This is explained by the large and increasing presence of international doctoral students studying in the U.S.