I think the answer is complicated. In Mexico, someone with a graduate degree is a “man of letters”, and regarded with some amount of deference. Scientists, especially, are held in high regard. There is a statue to Louis Pasteur in Mexico City.
As of 2012, Mexico graduates 130,000 engineers and technicians a year from universities and specialized high schools, more than Canada, Germany or even Brazil, which has nearly twice the population of Mexico.
However, for many years, immigrants from Mexico to the US were a “blue collar drain”. That is, oriented more to blue collar than white collar jobs. So less emphasis was placed on book learning than hands on and apprentice learning.
When I was a kid in the ‘70s, my pediatrician was from Mexico. Very highly regarded, everyone sent their kids to him, his office was across the street from the elementary school.