Labor Market Transitions of Immigrant-Born, Refugee-Born, and Canadian-Born Youth (original) (raw)
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Finding a job has become a critical challenge to many youth. Immigrant youth, who have been a key part of the global migrants, are particularly vulnerable when entering the job market of the host country due to various structural barriers. However, in both public policy discourse and research, their labour market experience tends to be overlooked. In this paper, we report the employment experience of recently arrived immigrant youth based on an analysis of the LSIC and findings of in-depth interviews of 82 immigrant youth in four cities in Canada. Our results reveal that recently arrived immigrant youth tend to work in lower-skilled employment, experience significant delays in finding employment, have difficulties with foreign credential recognition, and have fewer means to access to job markets.
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Direction générale de la recherche appliquée Politique stratégique Développement des ressources humaines Canada The views expressed in this document are the authors' and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Human Resources Development Canada or of the federal government. Les opinions exprimées dans le présent document sont celles des auteurs et ne reflètent pas nécessairement le point de vue de Développement des ressources humaines Canada ou du gouvernement fédéral. # The Working Paper Series includes analytical studies and research conducted under the auspices of the Applied Research Branch of Strategic Policy. Papers published in this series incorporate primary research with an empirical or original conceptual orientation, generally forming part of a broader or longer-term program of research in progress. Readers of the series are encouraged to contact the authors with comments and suggestions. La série des documents de travail comprend des études analytiques et des travaux de recherche réalisés sous l'égide de la Direction générale de la recherche appliquée, Politique stratégique. Il s'agit notamment de recherches primaires, soit empiriques ou originales et parfois conceptuelles, généralement menées dans le cadre d'un programme de recherche plus vaste ou de plus longue durée. Les lecteurs de cette série sont encouragés à faire part de leurs observations et de leurs suggestions aux auteurs.
Double Jeopardy: An Exploratory Study of Youth From Immigrant Families Entering the Job Market
Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 2012
This paper reports findings of an online survey and 16 in-depth interviews that show family and friends are neither the predominant nor most useful social resource for young jobseekers from immigrant families. Instead, they tend to use more formal job search strategies. In our sample, the employment outcomes of ethno-racial minority immigrant youth were less desirable than those of their counterparts from the dominant group. Based on the study's findings this paper argues that being an ethno-racial minority and being from an immigrant family become a double jeopardy for this group of new generation youth when they enter the competitive job market. For many countries over the last few decades, global migration has generated a large group of new generation youth from immigrant families who either immigrated to the host country when they were very young or were born there. The post-9/11 concern of homegrown terrorism, fueled by the youth riots in France, has led to many questions concerning the barriers to socioeconomic integration faced by the new generation youth in many developed countries. These questions have sparked avid concerns in both policy discussions and empirical studies of this neglected group of youth who face multifaceted challenges. The high unemployment rate among this youth is considered a critical factor in the ethnic minority youth unrest in France (Silberman, Alba, & Fournier, 2007). While youth unemployment is not a new social phenomenon (International Labour Office, 2006), in Canada, as in many other developed countries, the youth unemployment issue has long been seen as a "hidden deficit" (Canadian Youth Foundation, 1995), overshadowed by the adult unemployment problem. Meanwhile, in the limited youth (un)employment studies undertaken, this group of new generation youth has largely been treated as the "average" youth. Their immigrant family background is seldom detected or taken into account. This is due not only to a conceptual insensitivity towards their family's immigrant status but also to a tendency in youth (un)employment studies to focus on either structural factors, such as economic cycles, or human capital issues, such as dropping out from school, lack of skills, and inappropriate work habits