Employment Barriers Experienced by Chinese Immigrant Women in the Greater Toronto Area

Valerie Preston

Department of Geography

York University

2001

This study examined the employment barriers experienced by Chinese immigrant women in the GTA. The work histories and earnings of middle-class women who had immigrated from Hong Kong were compared with those of women who had immigrated from China. A quantitative analysis of women's wages assessing the effects of human capital was also completed. Both groups of women are well educated compared with earlier groups of immigrant women. Having worked in their countries of origin, the women arrive in Toronto expecting to work, however, both groups experienced rapid downward mobility in the Toronto labour market. Unfamiliar with the job market in Toronto and lacking Canadian experience, many women find that Canadian employers do not value their credentials and work experience in Hong Kong and China. Women from China and Hong Kong also think that they need more fluency in English to compete successfully for jobs. Domestic responsibilities constrain the women's job searches and employment. Many women have difficulty coordinating their domestic responsibilities with employment schedules and language training courses. Commenting on the benefits of living within the Chinese-Canadian community in Toronto, several women commented that the mutual aid and familiarity associated with living in a residential concentration with other immigrants become a disadvantage over time as there were few opportunities to practice English. Their difficulties entering the job market crystalize in lower than average wages for all women from Hong Kong and China. Overall, the findings confirm that immigrant women are having difficulty translating human capital in the form of education, qualifications, and work experience gained overseas into appropriate and remunerative employment in the Toronto labour market. The reasons for their difficulties are complex. Accreditation is an issue for some women, but others face different challenges, particularly women from Hong Kong who had been administrators and managers.

Project Management:

The research project was conducted by Dr. Valerie Preston of York University.

The research was designed with three specific objectives:

(i) to compare the wages of immigrant women from Hong Kong and China with those of other immigrant and Canadian-born women,

(ii) to evaluate the determinants of wages and earnings paid to immigrant women from Hong Kong and China,

(iii) to identify the challenges that immigrant women had encountered when looking for appropriate and remunerative employment in Toronto, and

(iv) to examine the factors that contributed to successful employment.

These objectives were accomplished with information from three sources: (i) the 1996 Public Use Microdata describing the earnings and wages, the human capital, and immigration history of individuals residing in the Toronto CMA, (ii) four focus groups involving 30 women conducted at the Chinese Information and Community Services offices and at Woodgreen Community Centre, and (iii) in-depth semi-structured interviews with 35 women who had settled in the Toronto CMA after migrating from Hong Kong and China.

The information was collected and analysed with the assistance of a post-doctoral research assistant, Dr. Guida Man, who coordinated the focus groups and edited the focus group transcripts. Three graduate research assistants whose first languages were Cantonese and Mandarin; Ms. Yuen Ngor Chu, Ms. Shijing Xu, and Ms. Jacqueline Ng, scheduled, conducted, transcribed, and translated the in-depth interviews. Ms. Madeleine Wong and Mr. Michael Romeiro assisted with the analysis of the 1996 census data, while Ms. Min Jung Kwak and Ms. Reecia Orzeck recently coded many of the transcripts using NUDIST, a computer-assisted text analysis program. Two Matching Fund Graduate Assistantships from York University enabled completion of the data collection and the analysis. As research assistants, students were trained in the design of semi-structured interviews, sampling, and interviewing techniques. Other students gained knowledge of census data, various statistical packages including SPSS, and a test analysis program.

The community partners, Woodgreen Community Centre and Chinese Information and Community Services, were very supportive. The assistance of Mr. Danny Mui, Executive Director of the Chinese Information and Community Services, and Ms. Maisie Lo, Manager of Immigrant Services and School Programs at Woodgreen Community Centre was crucial for launching this project.

The Research:

Hong Kong was the largest source of immigrants settling in the Toronto CMA between 1991 and 1996. Immigrants from China, who were also a large percentage of all immigrants between 1991 and 1996, are now the largest single group of immigrants. Immigrants from China and Hong Kong are better educated than the average Canadian and the majority speak some English. They enter Canada mainly as independent immigrants whose skills, occupations, and experience are considered to be in demand in the Canadian economy and as business immigrants who have the financial resources and entrepreneurial experience to start businesses that will generate employment in Canada. The majority of principal applicants are men. Their wives who are equally well-educated enter Canada as dependents. Viewed as dependents by the federal government, the women are not considered destined for the labour market. Their education, work experience, and skills are not evaluated. Many women from Hong Kong and China are well educated professionals and managers who were working full-time in high-status occupations prior to emigration.

The educational attainments and work experience of the recent immigrants are very different from those of many women in earlier immigration waves. Nevertheless, immigrant women earn less on average than Canadian-born women and than Canadian-born men and immigrant men. There is some evidence that recent immigrants are experiencing greater challenges in the labour market than immigrant women who arrived with less human capital. The purpose of this study is to examine the work histories and earnings of immigrant women from Hong Kong and 

China to identify the challenges that they are encountering in their search for appropriate and remunerative employment.

The Toronto Census Metropolitan Area which is almost equivalent to the Greater Toronto Area was chosen as a case study for two reasons. First, 40 percent of Chinese-Canadians live in the Toronto CMA and well over 80 percent are immigrants. Second, the Toronto CMA has proved equally attractive to immigrants from Hong Kong and China. We began our project with the assumption that women from Hong Kong would encounter fewer challenges in the labour market than women from China. As a part of the Commonwealth and an important international trade empôt, Hong Kong is well known to Canadians. We assumed that the credentials, education, and work experience of women from Hong Kong would be recognized more easily by Canadian employers than those of women from China. Women from Hong Kong, who are also familiar with contemporary industrialized societies and capitalist economies, are also more likely to speak English than women from China. Finally, women from Hong Kong are part of a community served by a large and growing ethnic economy with many businesses owned by immigrants from Hong Kong. The ethnic economy in which Cantonese is the dominant language offers more and better quality employment and business opportunities to women from Hong Kong than to those from China.

Wages and Earnings:

Analysis of 1996 census data for the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area confirmed that immigrant women earn less on average than Canadian-born women and both groups of women have lower annual wages and earnings than Canadian-born men and immigrant men. Following earlier analyses of immigrants= earnings, a series of regression analyses were performed in which the log of annual wages and salaries was the dependent variable. Different equations were fitted for Canadian-born women, all immigrant women, visible minority immigrant women, and immigrant women from Hong Kong and China, respectively. The small numbers of immigrant women in the Public Use Microdata Sample meant it was impossible to disaggregate women from China and from Hong Kong according to period of immigration. The determinants of annual wages and salaries were hypothesized to be level of schooling, age, marital status, occupation, industry of employment, full-time or part-time weeks of work, and total weeks of work in 1995. For immigrants, an additional variable describing mother tongue was included.

Each regression model has a reasonable goodness of fit with levels of explained variance ranging from 66.7 percent to 39.9 percent. In all the regression models, education affects wages and earnings in the expected direction although the magnitude of its effects varies among the groups of women. Occupation also influences wages and earnings with high status occupations associated with higher earnings in all instances. As expected, knowledge of English has a significant influence on the annual wages and earnings of immigrant women and visible minority women. Annual wages and earnings were depressed for women who had a mother tongue other than English. While full-time or part-time work influences the annual wages and earnings of Canadian-born women and all immigrant women, it has no influence on the earnings of immigrant women from China and Hong Kong, largely because most women in these groups who are employed, work full-time.

We are still analysing the census data, but preliminary results suggest that the wages of immigrant women from Hong Kong and China are lower than expected on the basis of their social characteristics. Using standard techniques, the mean annual wages and earnings of immigrant women were estimated by the coefficients in the wages and earnings equations estimated for Canadian-born women. There are substantial disparities between the estimated means and the actual mean wages and earnings for visible minority immigrant women and immigrant women from Hong Kong and China.

Work Histories:

The regression analysis allowed us to document the economic hardship experienced by many immigrant women from Hong Kong and China, but it can only suggest reasons for their difficulties. Content analysis of the focus group and interview transcripts revealed that many immigrant women from China and Hong Kong experienced dramatic downward mobility in the labour market during initial settlement in Canada. All of the women in the focus groups and interviews had arrived in Canada since 1990. The majority had not obtained jobs equivalent to those that they had left in Hong Kong and China. Among those who were employed, many were working part-time or on a temporary basis in businesses that were part of the Chinese ethnic economy. There were few differences in the job searches and employment experiences of women from Hong Kong and China. In both cases, the women had applied for jobs with little success, then looked for work by reading advertisements in Chinese newspapers and contacting friends and family in Toronto. The majority of women were offered jobs as semi-skilled and non-skilled service workers, sometimes with part-time hours.

The responses to downward mobility differed. Women from China were more likely than women from Hong Kong to be working largely as a result of financial necessity. Unlike the women from Hong Kong, women from China had to earn a living. Greater affluence allowed women from Hong Kong to withdraw from the labour market, return to studies intended to lead to new careers, and start their own businesses; alternatives that were not available to women from China.

The women explained their downward mobility in terms of labour market barriers, domestic roles, and spatial constraints. Among the most important labour market barriers was the unwillingness of Canadian employers to value their work experience in Hong Kong or China. Women from Hong Kong suffered severe disadvantages when employers undervalued their work experience. Having been employed continuously by the same company since graduating from high school and postsecondary institutions in Hong Kong, several women had worked their way up to senior managerial and administrative positions. Work experience was their most important form of human capital. Accreditation difficulties were common among women from China who were more likely than their Hong Kong counterparts to have professional qualifications. Both groups of immigrant women wanted to improve their English proficiency. They complained that language-training courses were not advanced enough for jobs in Toronto=s knowledge-based economy. The women also lacked experience looking for work. In Hong Kong, women had been employed continuously without needing to look for a job while in China, jobs were assigned according to different criteria and by different processes than in Canada. They had to learn to write applications and resumes and to be interviewed. Some women also speculated that they were the victims of discrimination, but no one attributed her difficulties in the job market solely to discrimination.

Domestic roles also constrained the job searches of immigrant women from Hong Kong and China. Both groups of women found it difficult to combine paid work with their roles as mothers and wives. In Hong Kong, women had managed child care and housework with the assistance of relatives and paid domestic help. Many women in China had also had domestic help. In Toronto, far from family members and unable to pay for expensive domestic help, the women were often solely responsible for domestic work. School schedules reduced the time women were able to enrol in language and skills training and their availability for employment. Women noted that they could not afford the high costs of child care without a well paid job. Among the women from China who qualified for subsidized child care, cost was not as important as the availability of a subsidized space. The gender division of labour was less rigid among men and women from China than between couples from Hong Kong, but two factors mediated the gender division of labour. Men from China were much more likely than their spouses to be enrolled in full-time studies to obtain professional accreditation in Canada, so they were more available for child care. Almost half of the women from Hong Kong were members of astronaut families in which the husbands were away for long periods of time, leaving all household responsibilities to their wives.

Place also affects the women's involvement in paid work. The residential locations of most of the women from Hong Kong and China differed markedly. Women from Hong Kong were more likely to live in Toronto's northern suburbs in new residential developments, while women from China lived near the centre of the Greater Toronto Area. Although the distribution of informants reflects the locations of the community partners who helped us recruit informants, it also corresponds to the distribution of Hong Kong and China immigrants within the Greater Toronto Area. In the suburbs, women found that long commuting times and long travel times for all purposes limited their availability for paid work even though the majority of women had learned to drive. Women from China who were more likely to live downtown had easy access to public transportation, but they had to learn enough English to navigate the city. Even downtown, women found that long work trips made it difficult to pick up children on time. Both groups of women commented on the benefits and drawbacks of living in neighbourhoods with other immigrants. Initially, the availability of services in their own languages helped both groups of women settle. Over time, several women noted that living in a Manadarin-speaking or Cantonese-speaking environment did not help them improve their proficiency in English.

Success stories are rare, but they share several common characteristics. Women who were successful in obtaining professional or managerial jobs often had a Canadian university or college degree. They had immigrated to Canada in the five years preceding the interviews and focus groups, but this was their second migration. After completing college and university, they had returned to Hong Kong. A Canadian degree or diploma was not only recognized by employers, but it was an important form of social capital. Women relied on social contacts developed during their studies to find appropriate jobs. Having studied in Canada, the women also had no language difficulties.

Conclusions and Policy Implications:

The analysis relies on two very different types of information: aggregate census data and individual stories. The level of aggregation of the census data do not allow direct assessment of the women=s explanations for their experiences in the labour market. For example, the census data do not indicate whether postgraduate degrees were obtained in Canada. The small sample size also made it difficult to evaluate the effects of period of immigration. Nevertheless, there are several important implications for policy.

Statistical analysis of census data confirms that immigrant women are earning less than their Canadian-born counterparts. The wage differential is surprising because of the high levels of human capital with which women from Hong Kong and China arrive. In their work histories, the women identified several types of human capital that were necessary for a successful job search and several additional challenges to finding appropriate and remunerative employment.

Although accreditation is an issue for some women, recognition of prior work experience is equally important, particularly for women from Hong Kong. Some formal method of recognizing prior work experience similar to the qualifications assessment programs that have been established in Quebec and other provinces is needed. Alternatively, internships by which women might establish the value of their prior experience on the job and gain invaluable Canadian experience would be helpful.

Embedded in the work histories of many women from Hong Kong and China is a damning critique of current language and training policies. Even women from Hong Kong who can afford to enrol in language and educational courses have difficulty finding courses that fit with their domestic responsibilities. For women from China, enrollment in courses is a luxury that they cannot afford without training allowances. Both groups of women would benefit from more sophisticated language training that would satisfy the increasing language requirements in Toronto=s knowledge-based economy.

The findings from this research project confirm the importance of exploring how employers evaluate work experience. Repeatedly, studies of immigrants' integration in Canadian labour markets have confirmed that employers place a premium on Canadian experience when assessing job applicants. Yet in some industries such as high-tech, employers value specific immigrants= foreign work experience. Additional research determining the specific competencies that employers seek is needed.

In sum, the research has confirmed that immigrant women from Hong Kong and China are earning less than Canadian-born women despite high levels of education and occupational status. In-depth interviews identified several labour market challenges facing immigrant women that range from accreditation issues, employers' unwillingness to value foreign experience, and limited proficiency in English. The labour market challenges are heightened by women's domestic roles and their residential locations. The complex interrelations between labour market challenges, women's domestic roles, and residential location call for coordinated policy responses rather than the current patchwork of settlement services.

Research Outputs:

1. V. Preston and G. Man 1999 AEmployment Experiences of Chinese Immigrant Women: An Exploration of Diversity@, Canadian Women=s Studies, 19:115-122

2. V. Preston 2000 AExamining Immigrant Women=s Access to Employment: Canadian and American Studies@ Conference Proceedings, the Applied Uses of Census Place of Work Data Conference (Mississauga, Ontario)

3. V. Preston 2001 ABecoming An Immigrant Woman: Hong Kong Women in Toronto=s Suburbs@ paper presented at the University of Toronto and CERIS-York.

Dissemination Activities:

Preliminary results from this project were presented at the Annual Meetings of the American Association of Geographers, Hawaii, 1999, the Fourth International Metropolis meeting, Washington, 1999, and the Canadian Association of Geographers, St. Catharines, 2000 and in the 2001 seminar series of CERIS - York. Findings have also been presented at various seminars in the Departments of Geography at the University of Toronto, McMaster University, and York University.

A short report was distributed to the community partners for their comments and discussion. I was invited to participate in a workshop devoted to women=s issues and assessment at a national conference entitled Qualification Recognition in the 21^st Century. The presentation was the subject of a subsequent article in The Toronto Star. I also presented some results from this research at a conference examining uses of Census Place of Work data in Mississauga, Ontario.

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