Occupational skills and labour market progression of married immigrant women in Canada (original) (raw)
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Labour Market Progression of Canadian Immigrant Women
Sociology of Migration & Immigration eJournal, 2014
We use the confidential files of the 1991-2006 Canadian Census, combined with information from O*NET on the skill requirements of jobs, to explore whether Canadian immigrant women behave as secondary workers, remaining marginally attached to the labour market and experiencing little career progression over time. Our results show that the labor market patterns of female immigrants to Canada do not fit the profile of secondary workers, but rather conform to patterns recently exhibited by married native women elsewhere, with rising participation (and wage assimilation). At best, only relatively uneducated immigrant women in unskilled occupations may fit the profile of secondary workers, with slow skill mobility and low-status job-traps. Educated immigrant women, on the other hand, experience skill assimilation over time: a reduction in physical strength and an increase in analytical skills required in their jobs relative to those of natives.
The Myth of Immigrant Women as Secondary Workers: Evidence from Canada
American Economic Review, 2014
We use the confidential files of the Canadian Census 1991-2006, combined with information from O*NET on the skill requirements of jobs, to show that the labor market patterns of female immigrants do not fit the profile of secondary workers, but rather conform to the recent experience of married native women with rising participation (and wage assimilation). At best, only relatively uneducated immigrant women in unskilled occupations may fit the profile of secondary workers. Educated immigrant women experience skill assimilation over time: a reduction in physical strength and a gradual increase in analytical skills required in their jobs relative to natives.
Trends in occupational and earnings attainments of women immigrants to Canada, 1971-1996
English This study examines the extent to which immigrant women arriving in Canadabetween the 1960s and the early 1990s were able to attain occupations andearnings equivalent to those of Canadian-born women using a data file createdby merging public-use microdata files from Censuses of Canada between 1971and 1996. We study both changes in country of birth effects on the earnings andoccupational status of women aged 25 to 29 immigrating prior to each of thefive census years and the experience of successive female immigrant cohorts asthey age to determine the extent to which the effects of birthplace onoccupational status and earnings change over their careers. In both cases we finda considerable advantage associated with being educated in Canada compared tobeing educated abroad. For those visible minority immigrants just beginningtheir careers in Canada, we could find no evidence that more recent cohorts havelower attainments than earlier cohorts, though this was true for some Europe...
The Work Trajectories of Married Canadian Immigrant Women, 2006–2019
Journal of International Migration and Integration
The behaviour of married immigrant women regarding fertility and labour markets is an essential piece to understand the economic and cultural integration of immigrant households. However, the contribution of married immigrant women to the Canadian labour market was-until recently-considered of secondary importance and their labour market choices studied within a framework of temporary attachment to the labor force. Recent research, however, finds that a significant fraction of married immigrant women make labor supply decisions (and face barriers) similar to those of native-born married women. We show that this is the case in Canada as well, by estimating the progress of immigrant women over the 2000s. We use traditional measures of labour market attachment, such as participation, employment and wages, but also novel measures of labour market dynamics, such as transitions across labour market states. Differences in transition rates can reveal higher fragility of work for immigrant women, or reveal the extent to which immigrant women respond to family income shocks-the added worker effect. Results show that immigrant women are less likely to transition into employment-more likely to transition out of employment to either unemployment or inactivity-and more likely to respond to income shocks than the Canadian born. There is evidence of a gradual convergence with years spent in Canada to the outcomes of the Canadian born, which is much slower for immigrant women than immigrant men.
The Changing Labour Market Position of Canadian Immigrants
The Canadian Journal of Economics, 1995
Canadian census data to evaluate the extent to which the earnings of Canadian immigrants at the time of immigration fall short of the earnings of comparable Canadian-born individuals, and (2) immigrants' earnings grow more rapidly over time than those of the Canadianborn. Variations in the labor market assimilation of immigrants according to their gender and country of origin are also analyzed. The results suggest that recent immigrant cohorts have had more difficulty being assimilated into the Canadian labor market than earlier ones, an apparent consequence of recent changes in Canadian immigration policy, labor market discrimination against visible minorities, and the prolonged recession of the early 1980s.
We examine whether the factors associated with the rise in the Canadian born - immigrant entry earnings gap played different roles in the 1980s, the 1990s, and the early 2000s. We find that for recent immigrant men, shifts in population characteristics had the most important effect in the 1980s when their earnings gap expanded the most, but this “compositional†effect diminished in the 1990s and early 2000s. The effect of changes in returns to Canadian experience and education was small for men, but stronger for women in all three periods. During the early 2000s the IT bust, combined with a heavy concentration of immigrants in IT-related occupations, was the primary explanation of the increase in their earnings gap. Furthermore, returns to foreign experience declined in the 1980s and 1990s, but recovered moderately in the early 2000s. In contrast, the relative return to immigrant education declined in the early 2000s.
Economic status: a census analysis of thirty-year-old immigrant women in Canada
Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie, 2008
Dans cette note de recherche, nous utilisons les donnees du recensement de 1981 pour Ctudier la situation Cconomique des femmes agCes de trente ans au Canada. Nous comparons la population des femmes immigrantes (N = 37000) B celle des femmes nPes au Canada (N = 160000), relativement B leurs niveaux Cducationnel, occupationnel et financier. Les variables contr6lCes individuellement par 1'Ctude sont : Ctat civil, p6riode d'immigration, origine ethnique, et dimension de la famille. Les rCsultats de notre recherche montrent que les femmes qui ont immigrC alors qu'elles Ctaient enfant (dix ans ou moins) ont plus de chances que l'ensemble de connaitre le succes socio-Cconomique B 1'Pge adulte; par ailleurs, les femmes arrivCes au Canada entre dix et vingt ans occupent le plus bas niveau de succes socio-Cconomique. I1 faut cependant noter plusieurs exceptions B ces conclusions gCnCrales. Une discussion des rksultats dans le contexte de I'hypothGse de V'assimilation' indique que celle-ci n'est pas suffisante pour expliquer les differences de succes socio-Cconomique au Canada des femmes nCes B l'etranger: un cadre thPorique plus large s'avCre nCcessaire.
The Changing Labor Market Position of Canadian Immigrants
1994
Financial assistance provided by the University of Ottawa and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council is gratefully acknowledged. We thank Troy Joseph for his very capable research assistance and two anonymous referees for their comments.
Gender Variations in the Socioeconomic Attainment of Immigrants in Canada
Journal of Sociological Research, 2012
Using data from the 2001 Census of Canada, this study examines gender variations in the socioeconomic attainment of immigrants in Canada aged 30-40. Multivariate regression analysis was carried out to test the research hypotheses. In general, the study finds that male immigrants in Canada aged 30-40 in 2001 are likely to have higher educational attainment, higher occupational prestige and higher income attainment than female immigrants of the same age group, even after controlling for human capital variables. A similar gender differential pattern in socioeconomic attainment also prevails across various subgroups of immigrants based on marital status and region of birth. The study finds evidence in support of the theory of discrimination rather than the theory of human capital, and it explores the possible implications of these findings.
Sorting or Shaping? The Gendered Economic Outcomes of Immigration Policy in Canada
International Migration Review, 2014
Using a growth model analysis of Canada's Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC), we establish a significant relationship between application statusi.e. the distinction in immigration policy between primary and secondary migrantsand individual wages. This relationship is associated with an earnings disadvantage for secondary migrants, who are disproportionately female. The disadvantage persists over time, even when individual human capital and personal characteristics, household context, and pre-existing differences in the relative employability of spouses are taken into account. We outline some possible explanations for this effect, as well as implications for immigration policy-makers.