Economic Situation of Immigrants in Canada
This paper talks about the migration of immigrants into Canada and the resultant labor environment for the immigrants. It brings together and reviews several recent studies conducted on the subject of immigrants into Canada and how they have fared in the labor market as compared to the native-born candidates. This paper shall argue that recent immigrants into the country face less prospects of getting gainful employment, and in the event that they obtain such employment, they are faced with low incomes that pose challenges for their survival. This paper will further argue that the economic impact caused by this immigration in Canada has been enormous. The rate of immigration into Canada has been on the decline in the recent past compared to the 20th century. Nevertheless, there has been a steady increase in the level of education of immigrants that make their way into Canada. It is, however, clear that the increase in the level of education among these immigrants has not been met with increase in income or better prospects for employment. Further, the manner in which immigrants have fared in Canada has also been dependent on the gender of the particular immigrants among other factors, with younger female immigrants facing an arduous task in gaining employment compared to their male counterparts. This paper shall review recent studies and literature that have been done in this area with a view to exploring the way in which the immigrants have fared upon entering Canada.
According to Frenette and Morissette as well as the Statistics Canada of the year 2008, the rate of employment and incomes attained by immigrants in Canada are substantially different from those of the native born Canadians. For instance, in the year 2006, it was found that the percentage of immigrants who had a university degree was twice the size of native born Canadians with the same qualification. However, despite the high level of education, the study found that immigrants fared worse compared to the native born Canadians as they experienced difficulties in obtaining employment. Even in the event where they were able to acquire jobs, the remuneration was low compared to natives. A number of factors have been touted as the reasons underlying the low level of employment among the immigrants. One of the reasons put forward as to the low prospects of immigrants getting employment has been that the credentials of these immigrants are not well recognized in Canada. Ferrer and Riddell argue that this is manifested in the low cadre of jobs that are held by immigrants with impeccable academic qualifications. A huge chunk of immigrants holding university education qualification have taken low end jobs as cashiers, truck drivers, office clerks and taxi drivers in a bid to make ends meet. Indeed, 28 percent of male immigrants and a whopping 40 percent of the women immigrant held these types of jobs. This is in contradistinction with a 10 percent and 12 percent on the part of the Native born Canadians, respectively.
Other factors have also been blamed for this form of underemployment among the immigrants. These factors include the dearth of information about the labor market prevailing in Canada, the recent arrival of the immigrants and the lack of contacts. This position has not been prevailing all along but has occurred in recent times. In the year 1991, the prospect of having an established immigrant with a university education qualification being in a low end job were pretty similar to the native born Canadians. This is, however, understandable taking into account the fact that the rate of immigrants into Canada between the years 1975 to 1979 was a paltry 12 percent compared to an 8 percent on the part of the natives. Conversely, this was not the situation obtaining by the year 2006. The rate of male immigrants that had moved into Canada had increased manifold by ten percentage points to 21 percent. The increase in the number of immigrants into Canada has had the effect of making it more difficult for the immigrants to attain jobs now as compared to the year 1991. Galarneu and Morissette postulate that this underemployment occasioned by immigrants had led to a reduction in their contribution to economic prosperity of the country as well as militating against their standards of living. They argue that the persistent gaps that do exist between the native born Canadians and immigrants have the effect of undermining the ability of the country to attract skilled immigrants. The same study also found a high relation between the high percentage of recent immigrants who had a university education in low end jobs and their country of origin, mother tongue and field of study.
We then examine studies conducted on the part of the highly educated immigrants. It is essential to note that attainment in education has increased tremendously since the year 1991. For instance, between the years 1991 and 2006, the proportion of native born Canadians who held a university education increased to 19 percent on the part of males and 23 percent for women. By the year 2006, a whopping 58 percent of recent male immigrants had a university degree while 49 percent of the females held the same qualifications. It must be stated that the increased pool of people with a university education led to an increased competition for the highly skilled jobs. This had a ripple effect of working against the chances of recent immigrants obtaining jobs and thus remained underemployed. This conflicted with the expectation that the pressure would have the effect of enabling the recent immigrants gain employment in highly skilled jobs. It is also the case that immigrants who moved into Canada in the year 2006 and in their recent years were on average, older and more likely not to have English or French as their mother tongue. In addition, these recent immigrants were mainly from South or East Asia. Generally speaking, these new features of the recent immigrants had the effect of decreasing the chances of their finding employment in Canada. Usually, the experience that is gained by these immigrants in foreign countries is not recognized or considered at all times. Green and Worswick argue that the experience attained by the immigrants in other countries is at most times disregarded even as they look for gainful employment. In fact, immigrating into Canada at an older age means that immigrants have many years of experience under their belt thereby reducing the chances that these immigrants will find a job consistent with their level of education.
As regards educated immigrants, the knowledge of an official language is an essential skill that alters the chances of gaining employment in the Canadian labor market. According to a study by Ferrer and Riddell, who explored the literacy and numeracy skills in the immigrants, there was a stark difference in proficiency in language between native born Canadians and the immigrants. It is notable that the rise in the number of immigrants making their way into Canada without either English or French as their mother language may find it disturbing to communicate in the official language. Undoubtedly, such a situation has the effect of increasing the likelihood that they will work in low end jobs. On their part, Green and Worswick aver that with the recent trend of many immigrants from the Asian countries where little information is usually available about the immigrant’s education, some mistrust is created . This mistrust that is engendered among employers in Canada owing to this has the effect of precluding these recent immigrants from exploiting their academic qualifications to land high end jobs. The language of immigrants, their country of origin and their visible minority status all account for an essential proportion of the differences that are noted between the labor outcomes of the immigrants and the Canadian born natives. The study conducted by Galarneau and Morisette further portends that the demand for applied science skills contributed to higher chances of being employed for those who had qualifications in these fields. Looking back at the time in the year 1991, it is axiomatic that recent immigrants over the last few years are more likely to be armed with applied science skills than in the former years. This is instructive from the rise in the percentage of male immigrants by the year 2006 to 65 percent mainly due to an increase in the number of engineering graduates as immigrants. It must also be set out that this growth in the number of immigrants who were trained in applied sciences and who were predominantly male militated against the female immigrants. This is because most of the female immigrants had skills in the humanities and social sciences. More so, this is reflected in the declining rate of female immigrants who are not trained in applied sciences owing to the dwindling interest in fine arts as well as teaching.
I now examine studies conducted with respect to immigrants who attained jobs requiring low education requirements and examine their spread in the Canadian labor market. There has been a general increase in representation in jobs with, low education requirements for virtually all immigrant groups. Specifically, the increase in the number of immigrants in low end jobs has been the highest especially with respect to immigrants from Africa and East Asia though the South and the South East Asia still have the highest number of such immigrants. Established immigrants of the male gender have witnessed a phenomenal growth in representation in low end jobs recording a growth of 9 percentage points between the years 1991 and the year 2006. The inability to speak English and French on the part of these immigrants mainly from South Asia, Southeast Asia and Central America has been associated with the increase in their representation in jobs that require low educational requirements. Over the fifteen year period, there has been a widening gap between the established male immigrants in Canada and the native born citizens. More significantly, studies indicate that the increase could not be attributed to any changes in the distribution by age or educational qualification as between the two groups. Essentially, the increase had no nexus with a particular age group of the Canadians increasing their educational qualifications at a faster rate than the established immigrants. On the other hand, studies show that there was a higher representation of female immigrants between the same years of 1991 and 2006 as compared to men. This could be explained by the fact that female immigrants tended to specialize in fields of non-applied sciences. Moreover, most of the females were not as highly educated as the male immigrants.
A study used the regression analysis method in seeking to find whether factors such as age, visible minority status, education, country of origin or field of study were crucial in explaining the increase in representation in low end jobs between the years of study. The findings of the study were to the effect that for the case of male immigrants, the country of origin as well as the knowledge of a language other than English and French was responsible for more than half of the increase in recent immigrants. What this meant is that if the male immigrants that made entry into Canada in the year 2006 hailed from the same country and had a similar mother tongue language as those in the year 1991, the rate of the immigrants would have been less than half the figure that it were. The study also found interesting facts with respect to the field of study of the immigrants. The field of study of the immigrants was found to lower the chances of an immigrant having a low end job. This meant that immigrants who had a degree especially in an applied science field of study had some protection against attaining a low end job. In fact Frenette argues that the losses in jobs occasioned in Canada’s technological sector between the years 2000 and 2005 had a big effect on the earnings of recent immigrants. This is due to the fact that most of the recent immigrants in Canada were educated in information technology. It is essential to note though that the relation between the field of study and the chances of attaining a low end job was lesser between the years 2001 to 2006 as compared to 1991-2006. On the part of female immigrants, the language of the females and their country of origin accounted for three percentage points increase in the case of recent immigrants. In addition, the field of study and their educational qualifications also had a negative effect on their representation in these that required low educational qualifications. Studies conducted by Picot and Sweetman as well as Aydemir and Skuterud confirm this position.
I then examine studies done to explain the deterioration of the immigrant’s labor market situation. As highlighted above, mother tongue language and the country of origin of immigrants have played a huge role in the deterioration of the market situation of the immigrants. Closely intertwined with mother tongue and the country of origin is the quality of education that is received by the immigrants as well as the failure by the labor market to recognize their foreign experience. This paper also argues that the class of the immigrants may also be a factor in the deterioration of their market situation in Canada. As a matter of fact, some of the immigrants go into Canada as skilled workers while others enter seeking for family reunification and yet others as refugees. This means that the skilled workers are accepted into the country by virtue of their skills and are, therefore, expected to shine in the labor market. A study conducted by Chui and Zietsma seems to confirm this position though this has fundamentally changed with the onset of the new millennium. Most of the immigrants entering Canada since the year 2000 as skilled workers do not appear to shine in the labor market as anticipated. For instance, a study by Picot shows that the fact that the immigrants possessed skilled qualifications did not act as a protection measure as to help the immigrants from evading the low income jobs. Be this as it may, we must take cognizance of the fact that there had been mobility of an international nature between the periods of study. It could be, and indeed it was, that some of the immigrants who came into Canada did not stay. According to a study conducted by Aydemir and Robinson, most of the immigrants that arrived in the country between the years 1980 and 1996 among them skilled workers and entrepreneurs were likely not to remain behind. Indeed, the study found that an average of four immigrants left Canada in a group of ten who had entered into the country. The chances of leaving the country were also made all the more likely by the economic downturn in the 1990s which meant that most of the people who had migrated into the country may have left. If this is the case, it therefore follows that the study set out above may have been partly based on a subset of that group and could also explain the high percentage of immigrants working in low end jobs in the 1990s.
It is also crucial to explore the case for immigrants with relation to the regulated professions or occupations such as medicine, nursing, engineering and law. We begin from the position that in occupations that are regulated by professional associations, it is more difficult to get in. This is because prospective workers usually have to take examinations and also prove that they have experience working in Canada besides having proficiency in either the English or the French language. We need to mention that efforts to alleviate this are currently underway with a number of remedial classes and language classes being undertaken to aid these immigrants into entering the regulated professions. Nonetheless, this paper shall not endeavor to look into the impact of these efforts but will rather examine the case for immigrants possessing qualifications and how they are faring into these regulated occupations. This paper argues that the representation of immigrants with qualifications in regulated professions such as medicine, nursing, accounting, law and engineering in low end jobs are higher especially among recent immigrants in comparison to the native born Canadians. In fact, for the native born Canadians, the representation in low end jobs was below 10 percent over the whole period of the study except for the accounting profession among female Canadians in the year 1991.
References
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