I’ve previously written about the wage advantage — as well as the simple likelihood of finding and holding onto a job — that comes with a bachelor’s degree in science, technology, engineering or math.

The study in that case concluded that many American technology and scientific companies are forced to recruit from abroad.

But they can also hire from the foreign-born population currently in the United States. According to a new Census report, a much higher proportion of foreign-born residents 25 or older with bachelor’s degrees earned their degrees in science, technology, engineering or math — the STEM fields — than native-born holders of bachelor’s degrees.

The Census report looked at a broader range of degrees than usually considered when defining STEM fields. Majors analyzed by the Census authors, Christine Gambino and Thomas Gryn, included computers, math, statistics; biology, agriculture and environmental science; physical and related sciences; psychology; social sciences; engineering; and multidisciplinary sciences.

Among the foreign-born bachelor’s degree holders, 46 percent had majored in a science or engineering field. That compares with 33 percent of native-born college graduates. One-third of all residents with a B.A. in engineering are foreign-born.

Of the 4.2 million foreign-born residents who have science- or engineering-related bachelor’s degrees, 57 percent came from Asia, while 18 percent came from Europe and 16 percent from Latin America. Immigrants from India produced the largest number of college graduates in science and engineering, followed by Chinese-born immigrants.

Like American-born women, foreign-born women are generally less likely to major in STEM fields. While 51 percent of foreign-born college graduates were women, women represented only 37 percent of those with science or engineering degrees.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=a59d679404eb7eefbaa4332f0cb91e32