Changing Patterns of Immigrants Socioeconomic Integration, 1986-1995 and their Policy and Program Implications

Final Report

By
Professor Edward B. Harvey
University of Toronto

Kathleen Reil M.A. (PhD) Candidate
Department of Sociology
University of Toronto

Bobby Siu, PhD
Community Researcher

In the 1997-98 funding year, CERIS supported the above referenced project. Edward B. Harvey was lead investigator and was assisted by Kathleen D. V. Reil and Bobby Siu. COSTI was the community partner.

CERIS support enabled us to obtain from Statistics Canada a special tabulation of 1991 Census Canada data which showed the socioeconomic situation for 58 ethnocultural groups at the Canada, Ontario, Toronto CMA and Vancouver CMA levels of geography. The socioeconomic situation dimensions included employment income, unemployment and incidence of low income as measured by Statistics Canada’s Low Income Cut-off (LICO). The data in the special tabulation also enabled us to control for gender, and in the case of immigrants to Canada, to control for period of immigration.

In addition to the special tabulation of 1991 Census data, we also examined data from: (1) a wide range of Canadian Studies of ethnocultural groups and immigrants, and (2) The International Migration Data Base ( IMDB) maintained by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

The statistical data used in the study was augmented by three focus groups organized by COSTI and conducted by Edward B. Harvey and Kathleen Reil in June 1998. Thirty-five subjects participated in the three focus groups and were selected by COSTI to be broadly representative of a range of ethnocultural groups and immigrants at different stages of the adaptation process.

The study also made use of 1986 Census data in 46 different ethnocultural groups common to both the 1986 and 1991 Census data. As in the special tabulation of the 1991 Census data, the 1986 data also contained information on socioeconomic situation

(employment income, unemployment and incidence of low income), gender and period of immigration. The 1986 data, however, are only for the Canada level of geography.

Several outputs from the study have been produced or are in the process of being produced. The outputs (completed and in process) are as follows:

1) Edward Harvey and Kathleen Reil have completed and submitted to the Canadian Journal of Ethnic Studies a paper entitled "Poverty and Unemployment Patterns Among Ethnocultural Groups." The paper compares, for Canada in 1986 and 1991, the socioeconomic situation for 46 different ethnocultural groups, including a wide range of visible racial ethnocultural groups as well as non-visible racial ethnocultural groups. The socioeconomic situation measures used are unemployment and poverty (as measured by Statistics Canada’s low income cut-off measure). Three main conclusions emerged from the analysis:

• When 1986 and 1991 data are compared, twice as many ethnocultural groups have higher unemployment rates in 1991. In 1986, 46% of the 46 ethnocultural groups had unemployment rates higher than the national average. In 1991, 76% of the 46 ethnocultural groups (35 groups) had unemployment rates higher than the national average.
• Although the overall national poverty level decreased in 1991 compared with the 1986 level, an increased number of the 46 ethnocultural groups experienced poverty in 1991 (contrary to the national trend).
• The same ethnocultural groups remain consistently disadvantaged (compared with the national average) when 1986 and 1991 data are compared on the unemployment and poverty dimensions. In short, there is a problem of persistent disadvantage.

 

These findings confirm the need for programs specifically targeted at ethnocultural groups that experience consistent socioeconomic disadvantage. In addition, our findings suggest the need for monitoring and program evaluation programs to discern whether the needs of specific ethnocultural groups are being met and/or how these needs change over time. Our findings illustrate that gender differences among the ethnocultural groups merit further study. For example, we found that the unemployment rate patterns for women differ from the unemployment rate patterns shown for men. The most obvious difference is that the average unemployment rate for women decreased between 1986 and 1991, while the rate increased for men over the same period of time.

2) Edward Harvey, Bobby Siu and Kathleen Reil have completed and submitted to the Canadian Journal of Ethnic Studies a paper entitled "Ethnocultural Groups, Period of Immigration and Socioeconomic Situation." The paper examines, for Canada in 1991, the socioeconomic situation for immigrants in 17 broad ethnocultural groups. Immigrants are compared across five periods of immigration before 1961, 1961-1970, 1971-1980, 1981-1987, and, 1988-1991. Recent data suggest that of all immigrants coming to Canada over 70% are members of visible racial minorities. In this study, both visible minority and non-visible minority ethnocultural groups are represented across the 17 groups. Recent studies by the Economic Council of Canada indicate that Canadian education and work experience are crucial factors in the socioeconomic adaptation of immigrants. The Council further notes that more recent immigrants have higher unemployment rates that their Canadian counterparts. Our paper assessed the socioeconomic situation of immigrants using measures for poverty, employment income and unemployment. The analyses produced a number of major conclusions:

• Recency of immigration is a critical factor in the socioeconomic integration of immigrants. Employment experiences of recent immigrants are more diverse than their earlier immigrating counterparts.
• The socioeconomic experience of different ethnocultural groups is not homogeneous. Immigrants of visible minority groups experience greater socioeconomic disadvantage compared with immigrants of non-visible minority ethnocultural group.
• Compared with immigrants who immigrated to Canada prior to 1981, immigrants who came to Canada after 1981 have higher unemployment rates, lower employment incomes and greater incidence of low income.

Our findings confirm that once the initial settlement period has passed, immigrants do not constitute an economic drain on society. Our study further suggest that current settlement policies and new policies are best targeted to immigrants during their first five years in Canada. Perhaps most importantly however, our findings suggest that immigrants from visible minority ethnocultural groups experience economic disadvantage that is persistent over the 30 year period covered during this study. Notable exceptions are visible minority immigrants from Japanese and Chinese ethnocultural groups. These findings confirm the need to re-define policies and immigrant settlement programs toward those visible minority ethnocultural groups experiencing persistent socioeconomic disadvantage. Further, since Canadian marketplace requirements and labour force skill requirements continue to change, immigrant settlement programs need to change accordingly.

3) Edward Harvey and Kathleen Reil are currently preparing a paper that follows the same analytical framework outlined in (1) above except that the analyses will be focussed on gender differences in the socioeconomic adaptation of immigrants from different ethnocultural groups who immigrated to Canada at different points in time. The paper will be presented at the Third National Metropolis Conference in Vancouver, January 14-16 1999.

4) Edward Harvey and Kathleen Reil will be participants in the CERIS Accommodating Diversity Project (ADP) Research Workshop organized by Michael Lanphier and Paul Anisef of York University and Gabriele Scardellato of the University of Toronto. This project is focussed on examining cultural and racial diversity within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) on a number of parameters such as housing, socioeconomic situation and health care. In accordance with the focus of the ADP, our focus will be on analysing our Toronto CMA data in terms of such factors as ethnocultural group, period of immigration, gender and socioeconomic situation. We will be addressing a number of Toronto GTA centered policy and program delivery issues in connection with this study and will continue active collaboration with COSTI.

The data we have assembled and analyzed for 1986 and 1991 provide a solid platform on which to build. We will be developing a proposal to CERIS for the 1998-1999 funding year for the purposes of extending our analyses to a third point using 1996 Census data. This will provide a critically important opportunity to determine if the various trends we are discovering are linear or curvilinear.

The partnership with COSTI was, and continues to be, excellent. Mario Calla, Executive Director of COSTI assisted us throughout the project and set up the focus groups at COSTI. For our part, we have provided him with all research outputs and have ongoing discussions about the program./policy implications of our results.

Kathleen Reil received training in the management and analysis of largescale public datasets, has developed a strong background in the research literature relating to immigration and ethnocultural studies, and is participating as co-author in all the refereed papers being produced ( 2 to date, 2 more planned.)

This report is accompanied by the following documents:

a) A financial statement for the project.

b) Copies of the papers entitled "Poverty and Unemployment Among Ethnocultural Groups" and "Ethnocultural Groups, Period of Immigration and Socioeconomic Situation."

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