Metropolis - Toronto Centre of Excellence

1998 RFP FUNDED RESEARCH PROJECTS

A. Economic Domain

1. Employment Barriers Experienced by Chinese Immigrant Women in the GTA

Research team (lead researcher, partners):

Valerie Preston, Department of Geography, York University

Danny Mui, Chinese Information and Community Services, York Region Office,

Markville Shopping Centre

Maisie Lo, Manager, Immigrant Services and School Programs, Woodgreen Community Centre

Start date: September 1998

Date of completion: September 1999

Amount awarded from CERIS: $19,640

Abstract:

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.

Nature of research collaboration:

This research could not have been completed without the collaboration of two community partners, Woodgreen Community Centre of Toronto and Chinese Information and Community Services, well established agencies that are knowledgeable about the employment experiences of their clients and communities. Community partners will be asked to comment on the proposed quantitative analysis, to identify participants in the focus groups and interviews, to help interpret the focus group transcripts, to comment on the interview results, and to advise on dissemination within their communities.

Interdisciplinary collaboration is also essential. As lead researcher, Valerie Preston, who has expertise in gender and urban labour markets and quantitative methods, supervised completion of the entire project with specific responsibility for the quantitative analysis and shared responsibility for interpreting the focus group and interview transcripts. With expertise in the sociology of immigration and the family and qualitative methods, Dr. Man supervised the focus groups and interviews, completed some interviews, and ensured successful and accurate transcription and translation. Student research assistants were hired; one Mandarin-speaking and the second Cantonese-speaking, to assist with focus groups and interviews, and a third to help with the quantitative analysis. Community researchers helped recruit women for the focus groups and interviews.

Contribution to training and/or professional development:

Two Masters students; Yuen Chu from the Geography Graduate Program and Wen Zhao from the History Graduate Program have worked as research assistants. They assisted with arranging the focus groups, recruiting participants, facilitating focus groups, and transcribing and translating focus group tapes. The experience provided both students with essential practical knowledge of qualitative research. Dr. Guida Man worked as a postdoctoral student supervising the research assistants, acting as liaison with the community agencies, and designing the focus groups.

Conclusions and policy implications of work:

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.

Dissemination:

Conferences: 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. Catherines, 2000.

- Findings have also been presented at various seminars in the Departments of Geography at the University of Toronto, McMaster University, and York University.

- Valerie Preston participated 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.

- V. Preston (2000) “Examining Immigrant Women’s Access to Employment: Canadian and American Studies” - Conference Proceedings, the Applied Uses of Census Place of Work Data Conference (Mississauga, Ontario)

- 2001 “Gender, Employment and Immigration: A Synopsis,” with Evie Tatsoglou invited presentation, Fifth National Metropolis Conference (Ottawa, Ontario).

Published Journal Articles: 2000 “Immigrants and Employment: A Comparison of Montreal and Toronto Between 1981 and 1996", with J. Cox, Canadian Journal of Regional Science, 23:87-111

- 1999 “Employment Experiences of Chinese Immigrant Women: An Exploration of Diversity”, with G. Man, Canadian Women’s Studies, 19:115-122.

- IN PROGRESS “Gender, Employment and Immigration: An Agenda for Future Research,” with E. Tatsoglou, submitted to Atlantis.

Other: A short report was distributed to the community partners for their comments and discussion.

February 23, 2003 “Immigrants in the Toronto Economy: Opportunities and Challenges,” GTA Forum, Toronto, Ontario.

- October 2002, CIC, HRDC Consultation “Immigrants in a Knowledge”, Vancouver, BC.

2001 February, CIC Conversation, “Recruiting Skilled Migrants”, Ottawa, Ontario.

- V. Preston 2001 “Becoming An Immigrant Woman: Hong Kong Women in Toronto’s Suburbs.” A paper presented at the University of Toronto and CERIS-York.

2. Immigration, Ethnic diversity and Labour Unions in Canada

Research team (lead researcher, partners):

Jeffrey G. Reitz, Department of Sociology and Centre for Industrial Relations,

University of Toronto

Anil Verma, Faculty of Management, University of Toronto

Start date: September 1998; extension granted

Date of completion: September 2002

Amount awarded from CERIS $12,950

Summary

In Canada, racial minorities have lower rates of unionization (union membership and/or coverage by a collective agreement) than do members of the majority workforce of European origins. The reasons, and the impact on relative wage rates among minority workers, are examined here in data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (the 1997 wave, combined panels 1 and 2,

N=32,634). The analysis distinguishes men and women of black, South Asian, Chinese, East and Southeast Asian and other racial minority origins, and employs a bootstrap statistical procedure for assessing the reliability of findings. To a significant degree, lower racial minority unionization rates are a result of their recency of arrival as immigrants. With time in Canada they rapidly assimilate into unionization. However, while unionization reduces the net minority wage disadvantage somewhat, the impact, somewhat variable across groups, is small. It is suggested that to have a greater impact, union race relations policies should place more emphasis on collective bargaining as well as on unionization.

Introduction

Immigration in recent decades has increased the racial diversity of the workforce across urban centres both in the United States and in Canada. In the U.S., where racial issues have long been prominent in discussion of labour markets, recent immigration has added new dimensions to such discussions (Waters and Eschbach 1995; see also Borjas 1985, Chiswick 1986, Lieberson and Waters 1988, Portes and Rumbaut 1990, Schlesinger 1992, Waldinger 1996, Milkman 2000,

and Briggs 2001). In Canada, recent immigration has been similar in its diversity, and in proportion to population has been even greater in volume (Halli 1990; Reitz 1998, 8-13). This immigration since 1970 has propelled race to prominence as an issue in urban Canada for the first time (Satzewich 1992; Henry et al. 1994). Research on the labour market experience of immigrants, therefore, has been of much interest to researchers and policymakers. This concern about the integration of immigrant and ethnic minority workers naturally raises the issue of another labour market institution, namely, labour unions whose role and impacts have been studied extensively in both Canada and the U.S. Since labour unions were founded on the principles of social justice and workplace fairness, it is only natural to ask what impact they may have on immigrant and racial minority workers. Equally, has the increase in the proportion of such workers had any impact on unions and their policies?

More specifically, one would like to know if unions impact the integration of new immigrants, particularly for those coming from a non-European background, into the labour market. Even though both Canada and the U.S. have received large inflows of immigrants since their founding, it is only in the last twenty years that significant numbers have come from countries outside Europe. There is considerable evidence indicating that non-white immigrant minorities experience significantly lower success in the labour market, compared to immigrants from Europe, and compared to the native-born workforce. Every labour force analysis of the earnings of immigrants in Canada (for example, Li 1988; Reitz and Breton 1994, Baker and Benjamin 1997) has shown that, as in the U.S., after account is taken of measured qualifications such as education, language knowledge and work experience, those of non-European origin earn substantially less than immigrants of European origins, and less than the native-born members of the workforce. There is also substantial evidence, both systematic and anecdotal, suggesting at least some of this disparity is due to direct racial discrimination (Henry and Ginzberg 1985). It would be useful to know what role, if any, unions play in affecting (i.e., improving or otherwise) the labour market experiences of such people.

In this paper, we use recently-available data from a large-scale national survey to address two questions. First, is there a difference between union coverage of racial minorities, both immigrant and native-born, and that of the white majority? If yes, what factors account for this difference? Second, to what extent does union coverage account for the differences in earnings of racial minorities compared to the rest of the workforce? We estimate the gross difference in union coverage and earnings and then try to decompose it by controlling for factors such as gender, recency of immigration, education and occupation.

Theoretical Concepts and Previous Research

Previous studies of the integration of immigrants in the labour movement, based on experiences in the United States (Rosenblum 1973; Parmet 1981; Collomp 1988; Mink 1986; Delgado 1993; Milkman 2000) as well as other countries (e.g. DeJongh 1985; Quinlan and Lever-Tracy 1990), have recognized that such integration is far from automatic. Rather, it is a social process which evolves over time, and depends on how immigrants enter or leave unionized occupations and workplaces, and how they are affected by on-going processes both of union certification, and of union job loss and de-certification. One study in Canada (Christofides and Swidinsky 1994) introduced union membership as a variable; it showed that visible minority men are only two-thirds as likely to be union members as majority group males. Here we want to examine this relationship further.

The entry of immigrants into already-unionized occupations and workplaces may be examined as part of a broader process of immigrant assimilation within economic institutions

(e.g. Reitz and Sklar 1997). This process may be affected by a number of reasons. On the one hand, immigrants may have little knowledge of their potential choices in the labour market. They may come from countries where unions are either not prevalent or less effective (less power, more corruption, more violent, etc.) compared to Canadian unions. They may also face more barriers to entering jobs with high unionization rates (usually the better-paid jobs) because of lack of Canadian education and experience. In many immigrant communities, social networks may direct new workers to specific occupations and industries which are often not unionized

(DeFreitas 1988), and also toward positions within a local ethnic economy which may also be less unionized (Portes 1995). However, as immigrants gain more experience in and knowledge of the Canadian labour market, they may become more adept at gaining entry to more jobs and occupations as well as become more informed about the labour movement and the benefits of union membership.

Employment discrimination against immigrants or minorities may take the form of lack of access to certain jobs and occupations, discriminatory pay, promotions or dismissals. Such discrimination may also affect access to union jobs. If discrimination against visible minorities exists, it is reasonable to assume that when they first enter the labour market, they would not be able to obtain entry into certain jobs, occupations and industries. They would then be overrepresented in some jobs and under-represented in other jobs. If unions happen to cover more of the jobs where minorities are under-represented then we may expect the unionization rate for racial minorities to be lower. This difference would be attributed correctly to labour market discrimination rather than to a lower preference for unionization among racial minorities.

Similarly, if unions were strong in jobs where racial minorities were over-represented then the unionization rate for racial minorities would be higher.

Efforts to organize new workplaces may also affect immigrants and racial minorities differentially. While existing union members may perceive that immigrants pose a threat to their employment and earnings position, they also may recognize immigrant workers as potential recruits who may strengthen the overall labour position. However, some of the same factors that affect the entry of immigrants into already-unionized jobs, and perhaps others as well, may affect the success that unions have in efforts to organize workplaces in which immigrants may be disproportionately represented. Lack of knowledge of the union movement and available options for collective bargaining, and isolation from supportive social networks, may reduce the potential effectiveness of certification efforts.

Where there is a loss of unionized jobs, whether through layoffs, downsizing, plant closings, or de-certification, specific population groups may be affected differently. Clearly if at one point in time immigrants are less represented among union members, then a subsequent loss of union jobs may reduce that disparity by lowering unionization rates in the mainstream population.

These various processes may operate quite differently for men and women. In Canada, a gender gap in unionization has been closed in recent years (White 1993), signalling a gender difference in the processes determining overall unionization rates. These gender-specific processes affecting union representation may also affect newly-arriving immigrants, including racial minority immigrants.

Two studies done in the U.S. show racial minorities to have higher union coverage than the majority white population. Defreitas (1993) using a sample of 23-30-year-olds from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, reported higher unadjusted coverage rates for blacks (29.4 percent) and Hispanics (20.5 percent) compared to the rate for Anglos (16.7 percent). Only Asians (12.5 percent) had a rate lower than the rate for Anglos. However, once the rates were adjusted for demand factors such as occupation and industry, the differences become insignificant. This study also found immigrants to have a higher rate of unionization.

Another study by Kim and Kim (1997) also reported higher levels of unionization among non-whites, using the March 1996 Current Population Survey. They found unadjusted rates for

Asians (16.3 percent) and blacks (21.6 percent) to be higher compared to whites (13.9 percent).

These differences remained significant even after controlling for a host of factors such as education, gender, age and industry. Further, they report that for Asian-Americans, the length of stay in the U.S. had a positive effect on unionization, suggesting that over time union membership is either sought more or is more available (through jobs). The study did not try to separate the effects of more demand for unionization for greater supply of unionized jobs. They also report that native-born Asian-Americans were more likely to be unionized than naturalized Asian-Americans. Lastly, Asian-Americans with U.S. citizenship were more likely to be unionized compared to non-citizens.

The integration of immigrants and minorities in the workforce is affected by their participation in the labour movement because of the impact that such participation has on their earnings relative to the mainstream workforce. The general effect of unions in raising income standards also benefits immigrants and racial minorities by boosting the wages of all workers with wages at the low end of the distribution, since these workers tend to be minorities more often (Reitz, 1998: 149-204). Here the focus is on the relative earnings of minorities within a given wage distribution. Racial barriers in access to union jobs also may be one component of the earnings discrimination experienced by minorities, but access to union jobs may offset such discrimination. Freeman and Medoff (1984) showed that in the United States, the most vulnerable groups such as young workers, those with less education or jobs skills, and including blacks, experienced greater earnings benefits from union membership than did older or better educated workers, or whites. Such data suggest that union membership for such groups may offset disadvantages due to lack of other occupational resources, and may offset discriminatory labour market processes such as racial discrimination. Whether such processes apply to racial minority immigrant groups, specifically in the Canadian context, is a key question to be examined below.

Our study adds to the literature in several ways. First, we describe union membership and coverage among immigrants and racial minorities, using a national data-set that is designed to be representative of the Canadian workforce. Second, we examine how union coverage is affected by minority status and other social and demographic variables. And third, we examine how union involvement affects previously-observed earnings disadvantages among racial minorities and immigrants. This research addresses issues of practical interest to unions and management (see Odencrantz et al. 1986), as well as of general public policy relevance. Public policy addresses the integration of immigrants and minorities into economic institutions, and unions are a critical element in those institutions. Strategies to address obstacles to the successful integration of minorities can be made more effectively if there is an understanding and appreciation of the part played by unions in that process. A neglect of the position of unions, and of the distinctive features of the union environment, can undermine the success of these strategies. The analysis also speaks to issues of concern to unions themselves (see Zimny and Waelder 1987). Unions want to add members, and are finding difficulties in many expanding sectors such as financial, business and personal services, computers, and other high-tech sectors. Immigrants are often represented in these sectors, and unions need to understand barriers posed by diversity. Employers negotiating with unions in collective bargaining should understand the changing ethnic composition of the workforce, and its impact in collective bargaining.

Union Policies and Practices

As background for our analysis, we examined the structures and practices that Canadian unions have put in place to deal with the issue of union membership and representation of persons of ethnic minority backgrounds. Such an investigation yields some insights into trade unions’ internal policies and policies in this area. We gathered information through interviews and websites of eight large national and international unions representing workers in the public sector, manufacturing, and the service sector and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). The average membership in these eight unions in 1999 was 195,000 with a range of 55,000 to

486,000.

The precise fraction of visible ethnic minorities was unknown in all the unions. Two unions estimated it in the range of 15-25 percent. For the most part, all the unions in our sample appear to recognize the importance of ethnic minority participation and equal access to representation within unions. However, some unions are more progressive than others in putting those beliefs into practice. Those unions that have yet to implement policies and programs to increase minority participation and to improve the status of visible minorities within their unions, have all generated action plans to achieve this goal.

Many of the representatives expressed that although they have made significant gains in improving minority representations and status, they still have a long way to go before they reach an optimal level of equality. This is evident in the number of visible minorities in leadership position within the unions. At the local and plant levels a greater number of minorities hold leadership positions than at more senior levels, and very few exist at the nation level. Only one union (in the public sector) and the CLC reported a visible minority in a high level executive position.

All of the unions, with the exception of one representing manufacturing employees, had in place a Human Rights department with officers who were responsible for ensuring that minorities receive fair and equal representation and to increase participation of visible minority members in union activities. Visible minorities including First Nations largely staff these departments and participate in Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) sponsored diversity awareness and management conferences and ensure that they abide by the human rights guidelines and standards set by the CLC. Many of the unions also held activities in the community and within their unions to encourage involvement in union initiatives and to recognize the achievements of their racial and ethnic minorities membership.

Some unions are more actively involved than others in strategically increasing participation of racial minorities in their unions. Overall, unions representing workers in the public sector were more progressive than others in their pursuit of equality and minority representation. This is perhaps because they are more heavily influenced by government human rights legislation and have greater accountability to abide by these laws than other unions. Unions representing public sector employees were the only ones aware of the fraction of their membership consisting of visible minorities in each industry and had set targets for increasing minority membership in those industries where minority participation is deficient.

Data and Methods

Our sample is drawn from the Survey of Labour Income Dynamics (SLID), the 1997 wave combining panels 1 (surveyed over the period 1993 - 1998) and 2 (surveyed over the period 1996 - 2001). Although this is a longitudinal survey, meaningful longitudinal analysis is not yet possible, and we use the data in this study for its cross-sectional content. From this sample, we drew a subsample consisting of adults in the workforce, but excluding self-employed persons and farmers. SLID documents both individuals as cases as well as jobs. Thus, any individual who may have held more than one job in the reference year will have multiple records in the job file.

For this study, we selected those individuals who either held a job or had it terminated in

December 1997. Thus, we exclude persons whose job terminated earlier in the year. The resulting sample includes 32,634 persons.

The SLID sample is drawn from the Canadian Labour Force Survey sample, which is a stratified multi-stage cluster sample. The complex sample strata include provinces, urban centres and rural regions within provinces, and economic areas within these units. From the standpoint of analysis of immigrants and racial minorities, the sample-design emphasis on equal representation of provinces carries the disadvantage of reducing the representation of immigrant groups which are concentrated in the larger provinces. The total sample of immigrants is 2,840, and the sample of racial minorities is 1394. Detailed analysis by nativity, specific origins, and gender forces serious attention to issues of statistical reliability and significance. In the analysis here, the recommended bootstrap statistical procedure is employed, using bootstrap weights supplied by Statistics Canada. This paper presents only weighted results, but except where indicated the sample N’s are based on actual interviews conducted. The analysis of unionization, defined as union membership and/or coverage by a collective agreement, includes logistic regression results in which controls for human capital endowments are included, and with attention to two time-related variables: recency of immigration for immigrants, and work experience for the native-born. The analysis of the log of hourly wages is based on ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, also with controls for human capital endowments.

Visible minorities constituted 9.1 percent of the sample with a slightly higher proportion among women compared to men (9.5 percent vs. 8.9 percent). Within this category, the data distinguish blacks (1.5 percent), South Asians (1.6 percent), Chinese (2.2 percent), East and Southeast Asians (2.1 percent) and other groups (1.5 percent). Significantly, 4.7 percent of the sample refused to answer the question about ethnicity.

Results: Unionization

Union members and those covered by a collective agreement constituted 32.1 percent of the sample, in roughly the same proportion as one finds unionized workers in the workforce as a whole. Canadian-born individuals made up 79.2 percent of the sample with immigrants accounting for 15.7 percent (5.1 percent of the sample refused to respond to the question about their place of birth). We further distinguished immigrants by their period of arrival in Canada.

Immigrants who entered Canada before 1970 accounted for 4.6 percent of the sample with immigrants during 1970-79 and 1980-94 accounting for 4.2 percent and 6.9 percent of the sample respectively.

Unionization rates among the White majority was found to be considerably higher compared to the same rate among visible minorities. The racial unionization gap is somewhat greater for men, though it is statistically significant for both genders. Among men, unionization rates are nearly

13 percent higher for whites compared to racial minorities (35.1 percent compared to 22.2 percent); among women, the racial gap is 8 percent (31.4 percent unionization rate for whites compared to 23.4 percent for minorities). There are notable variations in unionization rates for specific origins groups. For example, unionization rates are low for Chinese men and women, and relatively high for black women. Unionization differences with whites are not statistically significant for South Asians, though their union representation in the sample is comparable to what is observed for other groups.

To obtain a better understanding of unionization among racial minorities we provide a breakdown of unionization rate by period of immigration. Among immigrants, the racial gap in unionization is particularly marked for men (12.5 percent) but is small (and not statistically significant) for women. Racial minorities are more numerous among recently arrived immigrants, and for both whites and minorities there is a fairly rapid increase in unionization rates with time in Canada. Among men, the rate of unionization among immigrants arriving in the 1980s and 1990s was 18.7 percent, rising to 27.4 percent for immigrants arriving in the 1970s and 31.3 percent for earlier arrivals. The same trend holds for visible minority women for whom the increase in unionization rate with time spent in Canada is even more pronounced (16.8 percent; 36.9 percent; 46.1 percent). When unionization rates are examined for immigrants with comparable periods of time in Canada, the racial gap is very substantially reduced. Among recent immigrants unionization rates are fairly low for whites and racial minorities alike. Among immigrants in Canada for longer periods of time, unionization rates are higher, again both for whites and for racial minorities. Among minority men the increase is somewhat less than for whites, while among minority women the increase is somewhat greater for minorities compared to whites. Hence for immigrants, racial differences in unionization rates appear to be due at least in part to the recency of arrival of many racial minorities, and both whites and racial minorities tend to assimilate into unionization over time.

Note that among native-born Canadian workers, there is a significant racial gap in unionization. As for immigrants, the reasons for this difference must be examined in the context of the recency of arrival of immigrant groups. This is because native-born racial minorities in Canada tend to be younger than persons of European origins, and younger workers tend to have lower rates of unionization.

The next step in our analysis was to examine unionization rates for visible minorities after controlling for age and all several factors that influence unionization. Table 4 shows various results of logistic regressions on union status. Three sets of regressions are presented, separately for immigrants and native-born, men and women. In the first set of regressions (left hand columns) union status is regressed on racial status only. The second set (center columns) adds time-related controls: recency of immigration for immigrants, and work experience for the native-born, and the third set (right hand columns) adds several other human capital variables including education, occupation, marital status, province, public/private sector, and (for immigrants) mother tongue. To elaborate the analysis of race, the results are presented with visible minority status first as a bi-variate dummy, and then as a five-way classification of ethnic origin.

The time-related variables help explain the overall racial gap in unionization rates for immigrants and native-born alike. The racial gap which was statically significant for immigrant men, and for native-born men and women, is reduced to less than half its size, and falls below significance, when the regression includes the time-related control variable. The other controls have little further impact on the racial gap.

Lower unionization rates apply to many of the specific minority groups. Some of these lower rates are statistically significant - Chinese immigrant men and women, and native-born

Chinese women in particular - but many are not. Black immigrant women are significantly more likely to be unionized than white immigrant women. Native-born South Asian men are more likely to be unionized, though the trend is not statistically significant. In virtually all cases, however, the effect of minority status becomes more positive when time-related controls are added. This indicates a pervasive trend whereby the recency of arrival of all racial minorities reduces their unionization rates. Again the additional human capital controls have relatively little impact on these trends.

Results: Impact on Wages

We now examine the impact that union status has on wages for racial minorities. These results for men and women are shown in Table 5. Four sets of regressions are reported in columns from left to right: the left hand columns show regression of wages on visible minority status without any other controls; the second group of columns adds union status and an interaction term of union and racial status but still without any human capital controls. The third and the fourth columns repeat these regressions with controls added for immigration status, mother tongue, work experience, education, marital status and province. Regressions were estimated for visible minority status coded as a bi-variate variable first and then with a five-way racial classification.

The overall racial disadvantage is little affected by unionization. For men, racial disparities in earnings (beta = -0.17, and -0.12 after human capital controls) have a similar order of magnitude after the impact of unionization is considered. Union membership has a very substantial positive impact on wages, and there is a significant union/race interaction, indicating that racial minorities benefit more from unionization than do members of the European origin workforce. However, the impact on the relative wages of minorities is small. For women, racial disparities in earnings (beta = -0.10) is largely explained by the human capital variables. While unionization also boosts earnings for women, the union/race interaction is not significant (and the negative coefficient suggests greater benefits for workers of European origins).

Racial disadvantage varies among minority groups, as is known from many previous studies based on other samples such as census data. Among men, the impact of unionization on minority wages appears to be slightly positive. The union/race interactions are mostly positive (except for East and Southeast Asian men). For South Asian men (who had somewhat greater union representation) the positive impact is statistically significant both before and after the human capital controls. The positive impact of unions for South Asian men is also indicated by the fact the direct impact of South Asian status is greater when examined after the impact of unionization is taken into account. For other groups such as black and Chinese men, the impact of unionization appears to be smaller.

Among women, disadvantages also vary by specific origins groups, but less so. The union/race interactions vary in sign, with some positive and others negative; none are statistically significant. Despite higher levels of unionization among minority women, unionization has even

less impact on their earnings than is the case for minority men.

Conclusions, Discussion and Policy Implication

Our results show that racial minority groups are generally less likely to be found in unionized jobs compared to the white majority. This pattern is more pronounced for men than for women, and varies somewhat among minority groups. However, with the exception of black women, particularly black immigrant women, most groups are less represented in unions than are the white majority, and in some cases significantly so.

The gap in unionization appears to diminish over time for new immigrants many of whom belong to racial minority groups. The analysis for immigrants shows that any racial effects are related to recency of immigration of racial minorities. For immigrant men, much of the racial difference in unionization is explained by the time spent in Canada since immigration. For immigrant women, the racial difference in unionization is small in any case. However, the racial gap does not completely disappear, although this result falls short of statistical significance, and therefore may be modified in analyses based on more complete data.

In terms of wages, visible minorities appear to earn significantly less than other people with similar attributes. This disadvantage is compensated but only partially, by union status that improved wages but not by enough to offset it completely.

Our analysis suggests that further investigations are needed to try to understand the differential experiences of men and women belonging to a visible minority group. We have some indication that part of this difference is accounted for by minority women’s relatively greater success in accessing unionized jobs. Why that should be so is less clear.

It is also important to investigate the precise reasons for increasing unionization rates for immigrants with the length of stay. Since visible minority immigrants do much better over time than non-minority immigrants it is important to ask if this is because of greater need for voice.

Equally, it could be due to greater supply of unionization services (outreach by unions) targeted at this group. In any unionization drives aimed at immigrants, visible minority women appear to be most receptive to the union message.

Unions appear to play only a minor role in the earnings assimilation of immigrants to Canada, including the slower earnings assimilation of racial minority immigrants. What this means is that while unions are not in themselves an obstacle to job opportunity for racial minorities, neither do they provide any major assist in overcoming those obstacles. By implication, unions have little impact on racial discrimination in Canada, either positive or negative.

Our results show an aggregate pictures across large industrial categories. It is likely that racial minorities are concentrated in a small number of industries within those categories, and there, unions may have some mitigating impact on wages or other types of discrimination. The problem in investigating these possibilities is that as yet we do not have large enough numbers of racial minorities in all industries to permit a rigorous test of these differences. However, as more data become available from a second panel of SLID data we would be able to investigate this possibility further in the near future.

As background for this study, we examined policies and practices in specific unions, and those unions included in our sample appear to be on the right track in that they have at least recognized the gap in minority representation and participation in their unions. It is encouraging that these unions have identified the need to rectify under representation and unequal treatment of visible minorities in Canadian unions. However, the pace of change has been slow; the presence of racial minorities in leadership positions at all levels of these unions is still weak. Few of them have any significant program to target racial minorities for membership and for better representation in prized union jobs. For the unions, some of the next steps could be to target minority membership and to tackle the systemic bias that appears to work against minorities in access to good jobs.

Lastly, it is worth asking if unions should indeed put the elimination of racial differences in wages on their priority list. There are several risks and challenges in doing so. First, the increasing ranks of racial minorities coupled with the need to recruit new members to the labour movement would argue strongly in favor of a set of policies aimed at reducing or eliminating the disadvantage faced by racial minorities. Second, if the unions were to do so they will have to sell this idea to their majority members who may not always agree with this thrust especially when a fixed-size pie (e.g. a wage increase) may have to be divided between themselves and minorities whose lower wages may have to brought up to close the gap. Further, on the employment front, some majority group members may resent losing jobs and promotions to minorities in a time of slow employment growth.

These risks notwithstanding, many unions have already begun to place a higher priority on racial equality. Some unions have outreach programs in new organizing. Others have internal cells that provide services directed at minority members. Most collective agreements have clauses that prohibit any discrimination based on race. Yet, racial differences in wages are nearly the same within the unionized sector as they are within the nonunion sector. This suggests that whatever unions may be doing to reduce racial discrimination, the impact of their efforts is yet to show up in aggregate studies like this one. One message that can be taken away from this analysis is that unions may have to re-double their efforts if they want to help racial minorities close the disadvantage gap.

Dissemination:

Published Journal Articles: Jeffrey G. Reitz and Anil Verma, "Immigration, Race, and

Labor: Unionization and Wages in the Canadian Labor Market," unpublished ms., January 2003. An earlier draft of this paper under a different title was presented to the University and College Labour Education Association/AFL-CIO Education Conference, Forging a Labor Community Agenda: Race, Class and Gender, and the Fight for Economic Justice, held April 8 - 11, 1999, in Atlanta, Georgia.

3. Immigrant and Refugee Youth Unemployment: A Qualitative Exploration of Labour Market Exclusion

Research team (lead researcher, partners):

John Shields, Department of Politics and School of Public Administration,

Ryerson Polytechnic University

Kahn S. Rahi, Access Action Council

Ryerson Social Reporting Network

Start date: September 1998

Date of completion: February 2002

Amount awarded from CERIS $14,510

Amount awarded from other sources of funding: Additional funding to cover costs to enhance this project has been sought through the City of Toronto Access and Equity Grants. There will be approximately $6,000 from this source in additional contributions. With this added funding we hope to extend the focus groups to an additional immigrant/refuge community (Latin Americans and/or Portuguese) and to pay an honorarium to unemployed youth participating in our focus groups.

Research Statement

The ability to secure full and meaningful employment is a necessary condition for societal cohesion. Effective access to labour market participation has been threatened, however, by the high incidence of unemployment, particularly regarding youth. The purpose of this research is to examine the "lived labour market" experience of immigrant and refugee youth who have been unsuccessful in their attempts to integrate into the Toronto labour market. A qualitative case study of visibly identifiable African and Asian immigrant/refugee youth using semi-structured focus groups to probe their experiences of the local job market was utilized. The overall guiding question informing our research was: What role do race and ethnicity play in affecting employment opportunities and experiences for immigrant and refugee youth, thus excluding them from successful labour market participation?

Research Objectives

The ability to secure full and meaningful employment is a necessary condition for the realization of values such as freedom, economic well-being, justice, social participation and integration within market society. Effective access to labour market participation has been threatened by the higher incidence of unemployment, particularly on the part of youth. The central place of the labour contract as a core component of societal cohesion, consequently, is experiencing significant erosion (Offe 1997: 82).

The purpose of this research is the examination of the “lived labour market” experience of immigrant and refugee youth who have been unsuccessful in their attempts to integrate into the Toronto labour market. We used semi-structured focus groups drawn from African and Asian immigrant and refugee youth in Toronto. The overall guiding question that has informed our research project is: What role do race and ethnicity play in affecting employment opportunities and experiences for immigrant and refugee youth, thus excluding them from successful labour market participation?

This research will make a direct contribution to advancing equality by providing us with insight into the “lived labour market” experience of unemployed immigrant/refugee youth, allowing us to identify conceptually relevant themes, issues and contexts behind their labour market exclusion and the stresses on societal cohesion. While this qualitative approach does not allow us to draw representative conclusions, it affords us the opportunity to paint a textured profile and identify emerging and salient variables that are important in framing and interpreting the immigrant/refugee youth unemployment experience. This study enables us to begin to understand the racial and ethnic dynamics, among other factors, affecting Canadian youth in their attempts to integrate into the job market.

Context

There is ample evidence to suggest that a number of fundamental changes have occurred in the Canadian labour market within the last two decades challenging traditional notions of job availability, job stability and economic security (Shields 1996; and Burke and Shields 2000). The pressures of global economic restructuring, intensified international competition, rapid technological change, a shifting of skill needs and changing immigration patterns have set the context for Canadian economic and labour market transformations. Demographically, for example, visible minorities represent a growing portion of the labour force. In Ontario, between 1981 and 1991 their share of the labour force increased from 6 percent to 13 percent (Ontario Ministry of Education and Training 1996: 64).

Data from the 2001 Census indicates that immigration has now become Canada's most important source of population growth (Statistics Canada 2002: 2). Also, given the ethno-racial profile of incoming migrants to Canada, by 2016 some 20 percent of the population will be comprised of visible minorities up from 9.4 percent in 1991 (Chard and Renaud 2000: 22-27). The impact of demographic change facilitated by immigration is even more dramatic in major urban centres, a reflection of the fact that the immigration experience in Canada is a decidedly urban affair. Over 70 percent of immigrants settle in the three largest Canadian cities, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal (OECD 2001: 144). In 2000, 47.5 percent of all arriving immigrants came to the Greater Toronto area. The impact of immigration has affected no Canadian, or for that matter North American, city more than Toronto. Census data from 1996 reveals that 49 percent of city residents were foreign born, with nearly 30 percent having resided here less than 20 years and 14 percent less than 10 years. Yet only 6.1 percent of the population reported that they did not speak English (Ornstein 2000: iii). The colour of the city has changed dramatically as a consequence. In 1961, visible minorities made up only 3 percent of Toronto’s population, by 2001 visible minorities composed the majority at an estimated 53 percent. In terms of the racial profile of Toronto’s visible minority population, 25 percent is Chinese, 25 percent South Asian, and 20 percent black (Carey 2002: B4-5). Toronto has become not only Canada’s most ethnically diverse centre but ranks among the world's leading cities in cosmopolitan status.

Average unemployment levels have increased steadily since the 1970s, with an average level over the past three decades at over 9 percent, and more recently still sitting at the 7.5 percent level. Poor employment performance during the post-1993 economic recovery fueled discussion of a "jobless recovery" or a "job poor" recovery. Having lost a job in the 1990s, it is much more difficult to find a new one across all groups, but especially for young workers and immigrants (Shields 1996; and Pendakur 2000). Supply-side factors fail to offer a satisfactory explanation for high youth unemployment as those sectors of the labour market with the strongest performance contain the occupations with the heaviest youth workforces (Blanchflower and Freeman 1998: 5). Young workers are experiencing twice the rates of unemployment compared to the labour force average. In the Toronto region youth joblessness stood at some 18 percent by the latter 1990s (FCM 1998).

Studies reveal a long established pattern of labour market disadvantage and exclusion for immigrant/refugee labour (Bolaria and Li 1985). Research indicates that visible minority youth with the same education and training backgrounds have found it more difficult to find full-time work than those of European background. While some 58 percent of university graduates from European and 54 percent from South Asian background found employment quickly, only 40 percent of Black and 35 percent of Chinese graduates were equally successful (Institute for Social Research 1997).

While several key trends have been identified, our understanding of the degree to which the structural changes in the labour market are revealed in the lived experiences of unemployed immigrant/refugee youth is quite preliminary. While the immigrant earning opportunities for immigrant workers have been intensively studied, there has been a dearth of analysis of immigrant unemployment in Canada (McDonald and Worswick 1997: 354). The degrees of income polarization, job insecurity and detachment from the workplace experienced by immigrant and refugee youth have, however, important economic, political and social consequence for the nation as a whole.

Conducting the Field Research and Summary of Initial Findings

Initiated in September 1998, this CERIS-supported study has focused on the “lived labour market” in Toronto and the role that race and ethnicity, both material and perceived, play in affecting employment opportunities of immigrant and refugee youth. Professor John Shields of Ryerson University is the lead researcher on this project, working in partnership with the community co-investigator Kahn Rahi from the Access Action Council of Toronto (AAC).

With the funding support from CERIS, the City of Toronto Access and Equity Grants Program, and Ryerson University, nine focus groups were brought together to discuss issues which affect labour market exclusion and/or inclusion. In total 61 immigrant refugee youth from Africa and Asia participated in the focus groups. The youth participants were drawn from a wide range of countries. They included recent visible-minority immigrants and refugees from such diverse regions as: Vietnam, Somalia, Tibet, Japan, Afghanistan, southeast Asia, China, Angola, Rwanda, and various unspecified African countries. As well, eight service providers from in and around Toronto offered insights from their work with immigrant / refugee youth in the City.

The non-random sample of individuals was drawn from immigrant/refugee service agencies, ethno-cultural organizations, and youth/employment centres within the Greater Toronto Area. Ages of the participants (excluding the service providers) ranged from late-teens to mid-twenties with a mean age of 22.8. The size of the groups varied from four participants to as many as eleven.

While the interviews were pre-structured and standardized, once the taped sessions began the participants were given ample room to articulate (important) concerns and issues which may have fallen outside the original line of questioning. These semi-structured dialogues with participants concentrated on the following topics:

· employment prospects and obstacles;

· how structural features (including racism) and changes in the labour market are revealed in the lived experiences of immigrant/refugee youth;

· the commonalities and disparities between different immigrant/refugee groups as well as comparisons between the participants of the study and non-immigrant/non-refugee youth;

· what cluster of resources, at the institutional, community and family levels, empowers individuals and allows immigrant/refugee youth to maintain self-esteem, hopefulness, and societal attachment during unemployment; and

· the expectations of immigrant/refugee youth in the short, medium and long term regarding their employment prospects.

Emerging from the interviews and voluntary written pre-surveys are a number of discernible themes related to labour market exclusion. For the frustrated youth and service providers, one of the major barriers often talked of was the lethargic and prohibitive nature of the Canadian immigration process. Eager to work, many of the participants, especially those arriving without proper documentation, felt the immigration process was far too slow and forced them into a holding pattern of financial hardship and dependence upon government support.

"You know, right now like till we get landed status, I mean there are so many things we would like to do but there is always that obstacle." (Asian youth)

The government support, while appreciated by the vast majority of those dependent immigrant/refugee youth, was felt to be too meager. With a monthly stipend which barely keeps them out of extreme poverty, they are unable to afford adequate housing, appropriate “Canadian” clothing, or necessary transportation thus forcing them to settle for jobs which pay little, challenge them less, and are completely unrelated to their foreign work experience or education.

"The money that Social Services give you it will be not enough to buy a [Metropass]. To buy a ticket you going to buy ticket or you going to buy food or you going to pay rent." (African youth)

Often, it becomes clear in the study, foreign work experience and/or education is devalued in the Canadian labour market. So pervasive is the feeling that all experience and education must be Canadian that many individuals and ethnic communities internalize this barrier, not even bothering to enter the job market before they have at least some new, "Canadian" training.

"I want to work, but the thing is I cannot get a job with my present qualifications. I need to upgrade my skill and learn new skills so that I can compete in the market." (Asian youth)

"When I came to Canada everybody have been saying you need training. No matter what you have been trained for from where you come from, you still need new training here." (African youth)

A number of other obstacles, in addition to the major structural barriers, include access to information, difficulties with (the English) language, hostility to religious clothing, and culture shock. While overt experiences of racism were not that common, and perception of racism is highly subjective, the racism inherent in many of the structural barriers must be analyzed and addressed.

Dissemination:

Conferences: Khan Rahi and John Shields, “Immigrant and Refugee Youth Labour Market

Exclusion: A Qualitative Toronto Case Study”, Fifth International Metropolis Conference, Vancouver, Canada, November 14, 2000.

Other: Khan Rahi & Surrendra Santokhi, “Multi-ethnic Art, Culture, Neighbourhood Transformation and Economic Activities”, Sixth International Metropolis Conference, Rotterdam, Netherlands, November 26-30, 2001(findings from this project were highlighted).

- John Shields, Invited Key Informant, Preparing Canada’s Youth for the Future: An HRDC Project with Canadian Leaders (interviews conducted by SPR Associates Inc. for Human Resources Development Canada), Toronto, June 30, 2001 (findings from this project were highlighted).

- John Shields, Presentation, “The Canadian Labour Market and the Immigrant Experience: Economic Well-Being, Settlement and Adjustment” for a Tour of French Journalists organized by the Canadian Embassy in Paris France, September 27, 2000, Toronto, Canada (findings from this project were presented).

- Khan Rahi and John Shields, Workshop Facilitators, “Unemployment and Ethno-Racial Youth”, Bridging the Future: Settlement, Youth, Technology, Ontario ISAP Conference, Toronto, March 24, 1999.

4. Investigating Policy Barriers to Immigrant Business Development: A Case Study of Chinese in the GTA

Research team (lead researcher, partners):

Shuguang Wang, School of Applied Geography, Ryerson Polytechnic University

Lucia Lo, Department of Geography, York University

Association of Chinese Canadian Entrepreneurs

Richmond Hill & Markham Chinese Business Association

Canada Mainland Chinese Affairs Committee

Start date: September 1998

Date of completion: September 1999

Amount awarded from CERIS $16,410

Abstract:

Utilizing various data sources, this study attempts to understand the dynamics of the Chinese ethnic economy in the GTA and its implications on immigrant integration, by delineating Chinese settlement and economic activity patterns, identifying the structure of their businesses, and measuring their monetary contribution to the larger Canadian economy. It finds differentiated settlement and activity patterns of Chinese subgroups from various source countries. It observes that the Chinese have created a relatively complete local economy, but the diversified structure of their businesses also indicates full integration into the larger Canadian economy. It also observes that the economic performance of Chinese immigrants as a group is not on par with the rest of the population despite their generally higher levels of education and skill. In monetary terms, their contribution to the Canadian economy is positive. Overall, the findings are informative for the public and policy decision-makers about immigrants’ impact on Canadian society and economy, and are useful for future design of settlement policies and evaluation of selection criteria of immigrants.

Project Management

This research project was jointly conducted by Dr. Lucia Lo of York University and Dr. Shuguang Wang of Ryerson Polytechnic University.

The research was designed with four specific objectives in mind:

(1) to delineate the spatial distribution of Chinese immigrants in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA);

(2) to identify their economic activity patterns;

(3) to examine the structure of their businesses; and

(4) to measure their monetary contribution to the larger Canadian economy.

These tasks were accomplished by accessing three most recent data sources available at the start of the project: (i) the 1991 census data on the settlement and economic activity patterns of the Chinese in the GTA, (ii) the 1997 Dun and Bradstreet Regional Business Directory on Toronto’s Chinese-owned businesses, and (ii) the IMDB data on landing records of Toronto’s Chinese immigrants who landed in Canada between 1980 and 1995 and their tax records in 1995. Dr. Lo was responsible for executing the first three tasks. Dr. Wang oversaw the fourth one.

The research was complemented by two Graduate Assistant Matching Funds from York University and an Ontario Work-Study Plan Assistantship from Ryerson Polytechnic University. This enabled a group of six student and community assistants working in different parts of the project. Dr. Xiaofeng Liu, a postdoctoral fellow who left the research team for private sector employment midway through the project analysed the 1991 Census data on economic activities. Mr. Chi Shen, a doctoral student pursuing a thesis on immigrant settlement at York University, mapped the settlement patterns of various Chinese subgroups and the spatial distribution of Chinese businesses. Ms. Hui, a former Immigration Officer of the former British Colony of Hong Kong familiar with the spelling of Asian last names, went through the Dun & Bradstreet Business Directory to identify Chinese-owned businesses. Miss Phuong, an undergraduate student at York, made telephone calls to clean up the Chinese business dataset prepared by Ms. Hui. Mr. Andy Charles and Miss Winnie Chow, undergraduate students at Ryerson, helped to analyse the IMDB data. The research assistantships offered them training in the use of various databases, statistical (SAS, SPSS) and geographical information system (ArcView) software as well as analytical and communication skills.

The community partners, Ming Pao Newspapers (Canada) Ltd., Richmond Hill & Markham Chinese Business Association, and Canada Mainland Chinese Affairs Committee, have been very supportive and provided information which would be very useful to the next phase of this project.

The Research

Since the early 1980s, the Chinese have become the fastest growing ethnic group in Canada, due primarily to accelerated immigration. The rapid increase in the Chinese population brings about a proliferation of Chinese-owned businesses, many of which form visible commercial clusters outside of the traditional Chinatown area, greatly transforming the suburban landscapes of major Canadian metropolises. Such rapid expansion of ethnic settlement and ethnic enterprises has generated unprecedented impacts on community development and social life and raised concerns that increased presence and increased completeness of ethnic businesses would reduce the need and desire of immigrants to integrate with the mainstream society.

Given the lengthy history of Chinese emigration, the extent of the Chinese Diaspora, and recent changes in geo-politics and the global economy, the Chinese in Canada present a particularly interesting case in settlement/integration studies. The purpose of this study is to understand the dynamics of the new Chinese economy, to assess Chinese immigrants’ contribution to the larger economy, and to examine implications on immigrant integration.

The GTA was chosen as a case study for two reasons. First, 40 percent of Canada’s Chinese live there. Of the 319,195 people of Chinese ethnicity who reported residing in the GTA in 1996, over 80 percent were immigrants. Second, unlike other Canadian metropolises, the Chinese immigrants in the GTA came from different source countries, forming a culturally, socially and economically heterogeneous group. As differences in characteristics and experiences affect immigrants’ mode of incorporation in the host society, Toronto offers a rich context for studying this. This study investigates, wherever possible, the particular role played by subethnicity in both economic and social integration. The following four sections highlight the main findings on settlement patterns, economic activity patterns, business structure and economic impacts of Chinese immigrants.

Settlement Patterns

The data for this analysis cover all permanent residents of the GTA reporting Chinese as the only ethnic origin in the 1991 Canadian census. In 1991, the Chinese made up 5.5 percent of the total GTA population of 4.13 millions, and 79.7 percent of them were immigrants. The general pattern of settlement was 26 percent in the core area, 46 percent in the inner suburbs, and 26 percent in the outer suburbs. While Scarborough, Toronto and North York respectively held 28 percent, 22 percent and 16 percent of the GTA’s Chinese population, Markham, Richmond Hill, and Mississauga were emerging as important centres of Chinese settlement. Evidence indicates that

(1) the Chinese population in the GTA has substantially decentralized;

(2) the decentralization has occurred in multiple directions;

(3) new ethnic suburban concentrations are much more expansive than their downtown counterparts; and

(4) the old ethnic enclaves in the core are still thriving.

To understand this phenomenon, Chinese immigrants were disaggregated into subgroups by their place of birth and period of landing. This study focuses on the four spatial subgroups respectively born in Mainland China (30 percent), Hong Kong (40 percent), Taiwan (4 percent) and Vietnam (10 percent), and three temporal subgroups corresponding to major changes in immigration policies in Canada and in the political and economic structures of major Chinese-sending areas: prior to 1968 (6 percent), 1968 to 1984 (48 percent), and 1985 to 1991 (46 percent).

The spatial analysis of Chinese settlement shows no apparent concentration of the subgroup born outside Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Vietnam, reflecting the mixed nature of this subgroup. The most concentrated settlements of the four target subgroups are all geographically separate. There is also a spatial dichotomy in residential concentration between those born in Mainland China and Vietnam, and those born in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the former in the old urban core and the latter in the suburbs. Finally, the spatial concentrations of the newer Chinese subgroups from Vietnam and Taiwan exhibit a more diffused pattern than those of Hong Kong and Mainland China.

The temporal analysis shows that Chinese immigrants arriving in the 1968-85 and 1985-91 periods have similar patterns of settlement relatively distant from those who arrived before 1968. This earlier group concentrates more in the old downtown core although outward movement of this group has taken place, indicating upward mobility and spatial assimilation. Immigrants arriving after 1967 settle either in the traditional reception area or in the suburbs.

The overall settlement pattern of Chinese immigrants in the GTA is one of both convergence and divergence. Similar cultural roots bind Chinese immigrants from different origins to the same general residential locations; differential levels of development at source regions and varying social and political conditions propelling migration cause subethnic variations in patterns of concentration. The results suggest that immigrant settlement and resettlement occur along class lines and the residential invasion-succession process is not just an inter-ethnic or inter-temporal phenomenon, but also an intra-ethnic happening.

Economic Activities

Compared to their non-Chinese counterparts, the Chinese in Toronto are younger, more educated and more skilled. However, on average, in 1991, they made only 80 percent of the income earned by their counterparts. This difference is true across all classes of age, education, worker status, occupation and industry. The picture is generally the same when age, gender and education were simultaneously controlled; Chinese performed better only in a handful of the occupations, industry and worker status categories, for example, younger female Chinese immigrants with a post-secondary education and in skilled and semi-skilled occupations or in self-employment.

Three other aspects are also noted. Toronto’s Chinese tend to concentrate in white-collar instead of blue-collar occupations. There is also a higher level of participation in the finance, insurance, real estate, business services, accommodation, food and beverage industries as opposed to the government, education, health and social services, and transportation and communication sectors. Chinese and non-Chinese immigrants are similar in terms of their participation in paid employment and self-employment although in 1991 slightly less Chinese worked part time and slightly more did not work.

Internally, immigrants born in Hong Kong and Taiwan are more educated, more skilled, and more likely to be employed in finance, insurance, real estate and business services whereas immigrants born in China and Vietnam are more likely to be employed in semi-skilled and unskilled manual jobs in the manufacturing, construction, accommodation, food and beverage industries. Taiwanese immigrants are also more entrepreneurial than the other Chinese immigrants; 20 percent of those working in 1991 were self-employed as opposed to the 12 percent Mainland Chinese and 10 percent Hong Kong Chinese.

Once again, this divergence in economic participation can be explained by differential development levels at various source countries and the conditions upon which they landed in Canada. It also sheds light on the variation in spatial concentration of different subgroups discussed in the pervious section.

Business Structure

Based on the last names of chief executives reported in the Dun & Bradstreet Directory, the project identifies 634 Chinese-owned firms from a total list of 644,761 entries in 1997. Their structure and distribution are as follows.

Sectorally, Chinese businesses are well represented. Of the 65 industrial categories outside of the primary and public administration sectors, Chinese businesses are not represented in only 13 of them, most of which are either public-incorporated or regulated, such as non-depository credit institutions, and rail and air transportation. Over 80 percent of the Chinese firms are in manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade and services. Compared to all Toronto firms, Chinese firms are over-represented in manufacturing and wholesale trade; similarly represented in retail trade; mildly underrepresented in services, transportation/communication/utilities, and finance/insurance/real estate; and weakly represented in construction. Chinese manufacturing firms cover 16 of the 20 standard classifications in this category, including apparels, industrial/commercial machinery, electronic and electrical equipment, food and kindred products, printing and publishing, chemical and allied products, and rubber and plastic products. The wholesale firms are equally represented in the trading of both durable and non-durable goods. The retail firms are heavily biased towards the provision of eating and drinking places. Whether Chinese firms are actually underrepresented in services, transportation/communication, and finance/insurance/real estate requires further analysis since there is a strong representation of public sector and government-regulated industries in these sectors. For example, the Dun & Bradstreet Directory includes public educational institutions and hospitals in the service sector, and local bank branches in the finance/insurance/real estate sector. Given a concentration ratio of 60 to 80 percent, Chinese businesses in these sectors may not be underrepresented. All these observations suggest that Chinese businesses are diversifying and are no longer just retail- and service-oriented towards their co-ethnics.

Functionally, Chinese businesses are no longer confined to single locations. 12 percent of them are headquarters, mostly in retail and consumer services, suggesting multi-plant establishments. 6 percent of them are branches most of which are franchisees of mainstream restaurants, drugstores, or insurance establishments.

Structurally, Chinese firms are expanding in size. While 57 percent of the Chinese businesses are small (less than 20 employees) and 41 percent are medium-sized (20 to 199 employees), 2 percent of them, covering a range of business types in wholesale, manufacturing, realty, and accommodation, employ 200 to 750 workers. In terms of sales volume, while 26 percent of the Chinese businesses made less than $1 million in 1997, and 78 percent made less than $5 million, slightly over 10 percent of the Chinese firms exceed $10 million. Apart from a holding company reporting sales of $1.7 billion, the large Chinese firms are engaged in wholesale trade, machinery manufacturing, real estate, and business and transport services.

While this study obtains no information on the number of Toronto firms in each employment and sales class, it should be noted that Chinese firms, while representing 0.1 percent of the total Toronto sample, account for 1 percent of the top 1000 Toronto firms in both employment and sales. In particular, one manufacturing firm, ranking ninth in the whole Toronto business sample, and being the third largest computer firm in Canada, is owned and operated by a 1985 immigrant from Hong Kong. This is a great leap forward in defining immigrant businesses.

Geographically speaking, Chinese businesses in Toronto, like the Chinese people in Toronto, are urban bound. The shares among the core, the inner suburbs and the outer suburbs, respectively at 27.6, 32.65, and 39.75 percent, indicate the geographic spread of these businesses. Generally, the spatial distribution of Chinese businesses assumes a dispersed pattern although certain pockets of concentration are found in the Toronto downtown core, the industrial/ commercial areas in Markham and NE Scarborough. The location pattern of Chinese businesses is not entirely tied to the Chinese settlement pattern. While retail, service and finance, insurance and real estate are more likely to locate in Chinese settlement concentrations, manufacturing and wholesale are all over the map in Mississauga, Vaughan, Markham, Scarborough and Toronto.

Economic Impacts

Analysing the IMDB data allows us to assess the economic contributions of the Chinese immigrants by comparing the income tax they paid with the social welfare and unemployment insurance (UI) benefit they received.

In 1995, 28 percent of all the Chinese immigrants who landed between 1980 and 1995 filed a tax return to report various types of income. In total, they paid $111 million in federal and provincial income tax. 2 percent of them received $22.2 million in welfare payment, and 2.8 percent received $22.5 million unemployment benefits. Subtracting both types of benefits from the total income tax, the Chinese immigrants made a net contribution of $66.3 million to the Canadian economy in one year.

The proportion of immigrants reporting income and paying tax did not vary much across education levels, ranging from 25 percent for those with 0-9 years of schooling to 35 percent for those with a doctoral degree, though on average, those with higher levels of education paid more income tax than those with low levels of education, ranging from $1,425 with 0-9 years of schooling to $6,198 with doctorate degree. Compared with immigrants with higher levels of education, a higher proportion of those with lower levels of education received welfare; but on a per capita basis, the latter did not receive more dollars than the former. Immigrants of different levels of education are equally likely to collect UI benefits.

Length of time in Canada seems to be an important factor in determining the economic impacts of immigrants. In general, a higher proportion of earlier immigrants reported income and paid higher income tax per capita than the more recent immigrants (over 40 percent of those who landed before 1987 vs. under 30 percent of those who landed in 1987 or after). As well, higher proportions of earlier immigrants received welfare and UI benefits (more than 5 percent of those who landed before 1987 vs. less than 2 percent of those who landed in 1987 or after), though the overall proportions of immigrants who received welfare and UI benefits are as low as 2 percent and 2.8 percent respectively. Contrary to popular perceptions, immigrants in such classes as family members and retirees also made positive contributions. For example, 33.2 percent of immigrants in family class and 27.6 percent in retiree class reported income and paid income tax; but only 3.4 percent in family class and nearly none in retiree class received welfare benefits; and only 3.6 percent in family class and 0.9 percent in retiree class received UI benefits. As groups, these immigrants still made a net contribution of $24 million and $6 million respectively. The only immigrants who received more than they contributed were refugees and their dependants, with the former having received $1.5 million, and the latter $0.39 million, than they contributed. Even so, 67.8 percent of the refugees paid income tax, and only 19.4 percent received welfare and 9.7 percent received UI benefits.

Conclusion and Policy Implications

Social and economic integration has always been a key concern in immigration and settlement studies, whereas the economic contribution of immigrants has always been a driving force of immigration policy. The findings in this research project are informative for the public and policy decision-makers about immigrants' impact on Canadian society and economy, and are useful for future design of settlement policies and evaluation of selection criteria of immigrants.

This case study on one specific ethnic group indirectly illustrates how changes in immigration policy and different immigration policies can affect the nature and composition of immigrants coming to Canada, and the structure of immigrant businesses in Canada. They produce different social and economic impacts.

The Chinese in Toronto come from diverse origins. They exhibit different characteristics. Those born in Hong Kong and Taiwan are generally well-educated and well off; those born in Vietnam are the most disadvantaged; those born in Mainland China are a mixed batch, some closer to the Hong Kong subgroup in terms of education and occupation status, and some closer to the Vietnam subgroup in terms of economic disadvantage. Understanding any internal differences is an essential tool to designing public policies and enabling community dynamics. Whereas immigrants’ economic conditions prescribe their settlement patterns, a knowledge of this enables efficient and effective delivery of social and community services. Treating immigrants from the same ethnicity or from the same general region as homogeneous, for example, by educators and crime stoppers alike, is regarded as insensitive and may create mistrust and community resentment.

Through the economic activity analysis, it is learned that despite their education and skill, the Chinese as a group or as individual subgroups (and likely the other minority groups too), compared to the rest of the population, are in a disadvantaged position in terms of employment opportunities and earning potentials. If this unfavourable outcome is attributable to the following commonly cited factors: the glass ceiling phenomenon, the accreditation issue, the lack of local experience, the tendency of new immigrants ready to take any job for reasons of economic survival and/or intense participation in ethnic labour market, policy makers should seriously consider their implications on economic integration and social harmony, and expedite the policy processes on accreditation and labour market training, or simply rethink their immigrant recruitment strategies.

Chinese businesses have diversified and are represented in most industrial sectors. As they are actively engaged in basic economic production, they no longer conform to traditional perceptions of immigrant businesses. On the one hand, the Chinese have created an ethnic economy away from being enclaves. This is an important step towards achieving economic integration. On the other hand, the Chinese ethnic economy is relatively complete. The Chinese population in Toronto can look internally for all their consumption and service needs. This may distract social integration. While this economic transformation has partly to do with immigration policy changes in the last thirty years, and is a welcoming signal to the Canadian economy, it also poses a challenge to achieving a balance in social and economic integration as immigrant communities grow.

The economic contribution of immigrants is a key consideration in policy debate on optimal numbers and desirable selection criteria. In the past, debates tend to focus on the economic costs of providing services used to help immigrants acquire linguistic and occupational skills needed for employment in Canada, but little has been done to quantify immigrants’ economic contributions. The economic impact analysis suggests that the Canadian immigration program worked well in the past 15 or so years, for the economic well-being of the nation. In general, immigrants admitted under the program as a whole are not a drain on the system. It should be noted that the level of education at the time of immigration, which is a key selection criterion in immigration program, does not seem to be a significant factor for differentiated economic impact. Although those with minimal education are more like to receive welfare, a high proportion of them do pay income tax, and the income tax that this group pays outweighs the welfare and UI benefits they collect. In general, immigrants’ contributions increase as the length of time in Canada increases. Therefore, contributions of immigrants should not be expected to materialize in a short period of time. Some classes of immigrants, such as family members and retirees, for whose sponsors the federal government has recently tightened requirements, also make positive contributions by paying more taxes than collecting benefits. Since the tightened requirements would have a great impact on the family life of immigrants, it might be necessary to revisit these requirements in view of their economic contributions to Canada. The only immigrants who receive more than they contribute are found to be refugees and their dependants, but these are admitted into Canada for political and humanitarian reasons and the selection criteria are usually different from those for other immigrants.

Dissemination:

Conferences: Lo, Lucia and Wang, S. 2000. “Investigating Policy Barriers to Immigrant

Business Development: Case Study of Toronto’s Chinese”, Annual Meetings of the Canadian Association of Geographers, St. Catherines, Ontario, May/June, 2000.

Published Journal Article: in progress - the particulars of the manuscript are: Wang, S and Lo,

Lucia. "Chinese Immigrants in Canada: Their Changing Composition and Economic Status."

B. Education Domain

1. Enhancing School Retention Among African-Canadian Youth

Research team (lead researcher, partners):

Gloria Roberts-Fiati, School of Early Childhood Education, Ryerson Polytechnic University

Carole Chauncey, School of Administration and Information Management,

Ryerson Polytechnic University

Organization for Parents of Black Children

George Dei, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto

Muriel Clarke, Organization for Parents of Black Children

Roosevelt Robinson, Community Resident

Start date: September 1998; extension granted

Expected date of completion: September 2003

Amount awarded from CERIS $14,900

Abstract:

The incidence of school drop out in the Toronto School System has been found to be disproportionately higher for minority youths than for youths from the dominant culture. The figures are particularly alarming for students of African Canadian heritage. The long term social and economic costs of this phenomenon, and its potential as an erosive element on the structure of the family, calls for immediate action. The present study will investigate the efficacy of engaging youths in an exploration of systemic barriers to their success, as an approach to increasing their motivation to remain engaged in school. It is hypothesised that contextualizing the students’ education in the sociopolitical arena will lead to a greater understanding of the issues that affect their lives as minorities in a majority culture. This will result in higher levels of commitment to education rather than disengagement from the system.

Outcomes/results anticipated:

The purpose of the study is twofold: Firstly, to investigate the utility of Taylor’s theory of sociopolitical engagement of minority students as a vehicle for deterring school drop out. Will engaging students of African-Canadian heritage in the exploration of systemic issues identified in the literature as barriers to their education, be successful in preventing them from dropping out of school as current data have shown? (Royal Commission on Learning, 1994). The study seeks to gain an insight into some of the issues students identify as affecting their school success, their thoughts and feelings about the incidence of drop out among their peers, and lastly, some of their own ideas on how drop out may be prevented.

Secondly, because parent involvement has been identified as such a potent factor in students’ academic success, interviews will be held with parents to gain an understanding of what they see as barriers to their children’s educational success; to identify their thoughts on what might be needed to address the issues they identify; and what would they need, if anything, to support their children’s learning.

Nature of research collaboration:

The research team is comprised of partners from Ryerson, the University of Toronto (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education), a representative from a community group - Organization of Parents of Black Children (OPBC) - a retired school principal is serving as project coordinator, and vice principals from two middle schools from which participating and comparison students have been drawn. All parties with the exception of the vice principals, are participating in planning and implementing the project. Gloria Roberts-Fiati and Carole Chauncey assume main responsibility for the project and are working closely with George Dei from OISE and the community resident. The students are working in coordination with the lead researchers in data collection and analysis, and in the weekly meetings with the study groups.

Contribution to training and/or professional development:

This project provides research experience for graduate and undergraduate students, with the latter serving as mentors to the project kids.

Policy implications of work:

Research has shown that the incidence of school drop out for minority youth is disproportionately higher than for students from the dominant cultural group/s. The figures are particularly alarming for youths of African-Canadian heritage. Education has been recognized as one of the main vehicles for the attainment of economic wealth and social mobility. If some groups experience consistent failure in this domain, they are essentially cut off from the opportunities to attain a state of economic independence and well-being. Outcomes from this study will be useful for educators and policy makers in understanding the obstacles with which minority students are faced over and beyond the typical challenges to kids in the school system. It will promote an understanding that generic policies may not be sufficient to meet the needs of minority groups and educational reform that address their specific needs are necessary to the attainment of our societal value of equal access.

Dissemination:

Conferences: paper presented at CERIS Metropolis conference held in Toronto in May 2000

C. Community Domain

1. Latin American Youth in Toronto: Identity and Immigration Issues

Research team (lead researcher, partners):

Alan B. Simmons, Centre of Excellence for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean, (CERLAC), York University

George Bielmeier, School of Social Work, Ryerson Polytechnic University

Duberlis Ramos, Hispanic Development Council

Start date: September 1998

Date of completion: October 2000

Amount awarded from CERIS $23,706

Amount awarded from other sources of funding: $1500, York University

Summary and Main Conclusions

A study of Latin Americans conducted with the participation of some 50 Latin American origin youth in focus groups and another 180 similar youths as individual interviewees makes clear that their principal concern is overcoming negative stereotypes of Latin Americans and Latinos (defined as a younger generation of Latin American origin living in North America). While the drive to overcome negative stereotyping by generating a new positive identity was not the only or even the main original focus of the study, in the research itself it became clear that this issue overshadowed many others from the youths whose concerns this study sought to record and understand.

The desire of the youths to generate positive images of Latinos in particular is linked to an effort to conserve what they perceive to be positive Latin American values with regard to family cohesion and respect for one’s parents, while at the same time exploring their individuality and opportunities for developing a new identity in Canadian society and within North America more generally.

The youths perceive the need for institutional programs to overcome negative stereotyping and cross-cultural ignorance particularly in schools (for both teachers and other students) and for the police force which they view as having deep negative prejudice toward Latino youth.

The desire of Latino youths to become involved directly in programs intended to address such problems is currently a diffuse, underdeveloped potential. The next step is to explore within the Latin American community in Toronto and through other interested bodies how such a potential might be constructively promoted and organized to effect change.

Research Goals and Data

The following is taken from the original proposal:

This study seeks to expand the theoretical understanding of "integration outcomes" (from assimilation to hostile interactions) for Latin American origin youths, aged 13 to 19, in Toronto, and to provide information not currently available but of potentially great interest to service providers in various fields: education, health, community services, youth programs, etc. Particular attention will be paid to youth views on "safe" and "dangerous" social spaces and how these are shaped within various dimensions of integration, such as gender relations (machismo in the Latin American community), ethnic stereotyping and exclusions, group and "gang" culture, etc. The study design is largely participatory. Youth will meet to discuss issues of integration and social spaces, and they will serve as consultants to the development of a survey questionnaire to be applied by them to other youths in the community. The views of the youth will be interpreted taking into account the broader characteristics of their community as assessed from census and other data.

The following illustrative and more specific questions are also extracted from the proposal:

(1) Identity. How do Latin American youths perceive themselves, and how does this shape their views on sex-roles, the benefits of schooling, and participation in sub-cultures (including “gangs”)?

(2) Fields of “danger.” How do they understand and deal with “safe” and “dangerous” social spaces arising through stereotyping, exclusion, sexuality, and gaps between home and host cultures, etc.?

(3) Migration experience. How do they perceive the impact of the influence of violence in home countries and refugee experience on their integration?

(4) Social policy. How do these youths assess the value of programmes in schools and the community with respect to increasing their security and integration? How would they improve these programmes?

Data gathered and analyzed

We followed closely the methodology outlined in the project proposal, although a number of modifications were incorporated to the study design to reflect the circumstances we encountered. Approximately 50 youths of Latin American origin living in Toronto were identified for “extended focus groups”. Latin American origin was defined as being born in Latin America (the case for most of the youths) or having been born in Canada to immigrants from the region (the case for a few). To begin with we defined "youth" as individuals aged 13-19, but very soon we realized that this was unsatisfactory (for reasons given below) such that the age-range was expanded to include young adults in their 20’s. About half of the participants were identified by Luis Carrillos based on his professional knowledge (as a youth worker coordinating HDC programs for Latin American youth in Toronto) of Latin American youths (individuals and groups) in various parts of the city. The others were friends of the participants initially identified.

Participation was voluntary. The youths were told about the study and invited to become involved with the goal of learning something about themselves and contributing their knowledge to the community. Modest honoraria (subway or bus tokens and $10 to $15 for participation) were provided.

The youths were organized into seven “extended focus groups” of approximately six to eight persons each, with each group generally including both males and females and individuals of different ages. All groups met at least once for one to two hours of discussion. Several groups met more than once. One group met three times. Discussion, led by one or more researchers, focused on the themes of the study and incorporated other subjects that the youths themselves brought forward. The discussions were taped and transcribed for analysis, with one exception (one of the first groups to meet did not want to be taped, so hand written notes were taken by the researchers).

Eight of the youths involved in the focus group discussions were selected and invited (based on their evident interest and insights) to assist in developing and conducting a small survey of other youths in the community on the topics of concern in this study. The questionnaire developed was applied to 180 youths in the Latin American community chosen through the “snowball” procedure (one interviewee suggests others who might wish to be interviewed) in the community. The survey provides some preliminary quantitative data to complement the qualitative data from the focus groups.

The special tabulation of the 1996 census proposed for the study was not requested. While it would still be desirable to have such data, the researchers determined that it would be more cost-effective to strengthen the focus group and questionnaire components of the study, while taking advantage of data from the 1996 census being provided for other studies.

Main Research Findings

Who are the youths?

As noted above, youths were originally defined for the purposes of this study as individuals aged 13-19. However, in conducting the study the actual age range of participants was increased to include individuals aged 20 to 24 (and a few people aged 25 to 29). The major reason for this change was evidence early in the study that schooling, work and life-style experiences of teenagers and young adults in the Latin American community in Toronto blend into a common “youth” culture that extends from the mid-teens into the mid-twenties. In this broad age span, there is no significant dividing line around the age of 19, 20 to 21 in life-style arising from schooling, work, friendships, or family. The youths begin to combine work and schooling early while in high school. Many drop out of school before they finish high school, but few give up on the idea of further studies and many go back to school part- or full-time. They continue to work, often in short-term jobs or part-time, and when unemployed, they spend their times with friends. Few marry in this period. Probably these findings would apply to contemporary youth more generally. In addition, we discovered that young adults were able to provide useful perspective on their experiences as teenagers in a minority Latin American community in Toronto.

What is their identity? How does this relate to their sense of civic responsibility?

The youths have overlapping identities. They see themselves as Hispanics, as Latin Americans, and in varying degrees (though generally less so) as Canadians. Most of all, however, they see themselves as “Latinos”, that is, young men and women of Latin American origin living in North America. Their struggles as minority youths and young adults against stereotyping are viewed by them as part of a transnational effort—one that must take place in Toronto, in other cities in Canada, and throughout the United States. This was not always said explicitly, but could be inferred by the way they talked about the nature of the stereotyping problem and how it should be addressed. Such a perspective, particularly among some “leaders” in the focus group discussions, tended to increase their desire to become involved in activities designed to promote a positive Latino image in Toronto specifically. In other words, the desire to become active in civic organization is not linked particularly to national identification or pride.

What are their views on safe and dangerous places?

This topic turned out to be far more complex than we originally imagined it would be from previous research reports (largely from studies in Europe) on this topic. Latin American youths are very sensitive to and aware of prejudice and ethnic stereotyping that restrict their opportunities and generate hostile tensions at school and in the community more generally. They are also very familiar with what they perceive to be high levels of physical violence and extremely high levels of verbal violence (insults, threats, etc.) in high school and among youths on the street, not all of which is ethnic based. A lot of this violence seems to be based on life-style differences and clique formation that is overlapping but not identical to ethnic identification. Further, given the fact that public discourse on youth violence and youth gangs tends to focus on males and on physical violence, we did not anticipate that verbal violence would be so frequent and aggressive among young women.

As vicious as the violence may objectively be from time to time -- according to press reports of stabbings and brutal kicking by Toronto youths leading to serious injury and death of minority victims-- the Latin American youths in this study do not typically see the levels of violence around them as “dangerous”. This somewhat surprising finding is however consistent with their world view and experience. The items that make newspaper headlines are viewed by them as exceptional, not day-to-day. Further, the youths -- both male and female -- define themselves for the most part as resilient individually (that is they feel that they know how to avoid or handle threats of violence). Even more importantly they see themselves as being protected by their friends, both Latin American origin and others.

Feelings of fear and isolation had been experienced at specific moments by many of the youths. These episodes were recounted as arising from a stage of high vulnerability, such as being a recently arrived child immigrant with poor or no skill in English, unusual and perhaps very poor quality clothing (many of the youths came to Canada in refugee families who had lost all their belongings), and no friends. These experiences are mostly in the past, although in some cases the deep insecurity and sense of rejection lasted for many years.

What is the impact of cultural and family background?

The youths had widely varying background experiences. While about half of the participants in the discussions and interviews came from Central American backgrounds, the others came from various countries in South America. Some had arrived to Canada as very young children. Others had arrived more recently. It is therefore difficult to generalize about the significance of their home-country experiences, other than to say that for most the home country experience seemed distant, that is removed in time, place and relevance from their current concerns. Even those who came as children in refugee families from countries undergoing war and widespread violence have little recollection of or concern for the specific details of this. They recall the experience largely indirectly through the stories and memories of their parents.

Although the youths see themselves more as Latinos than as Latin Americans, they generally have a very positive appreciation of what they understand to be Latin American values, particularly those of “family solidarity” and “respect” for one’s elders. This was true even for youths whose families had been re-configured (through deaths, separations, and divorces) and other “losses” (such as alienation from one or another parent, often the father) associated with settlement in Canada. They saw these personal losses as specific tragedies or sad occurrences. Many reported conflicts with their parents over issues of personal autonomy; they conceded moreover that these conflicts did raise dilemmas of “respect”, including doing what one’s parents want and expect, even when this would limit “individuality” and personal freedom. Their stance seemed to be one involving challenging the limits of parental control, while at the same time paradoxically supporting the values that underlie parental authority and family solidarity. In sum, there was little evidence of a generational split in values. In contrast, we saw evidence of some tension between generations in terms of how exactly these values should be applied in the Canadian context, where individuality is more dominant.

What do they say about Canadian schools?

Many of the youths were still in school, others had recently finished studies, and others still were thinking of pursuing further studies. Teachers had played a major role in their lives. Nearly all the participants had memories of teachers who were hostile to them, or who lacked any understanding of their special needs as immigrants or minority students. Yet, for every negative story there was another story about an outstanding teacher that had really helped out in a time of need. There was a more widespread feeling that the schools they had attended had failed in terms of developing institutional programs to prepare teachers and other students to promote anti-racist and anti-immigrant practices.

What do they say about the Canadian police?

As many as half of the youth participating in discussions or answering the questionnaire have had some direct contact with the police leading to questioning of their activities or charges being laid. These youths and others who have not had direct contact of this kind are extremely distrustful of police. They see police officers “targeting” Hispanic youth. According to them, the police seem to act as if all Hispanic youth are members of “gangs” involved in illicit activity. The preferred response to this included particularly mobilizing community information and action programs involving Latin American youths that would challenge and reverse police stereotyping.

What contextual factors need to be taken into account?

Secondary data provide ample evidence that the Latin American origin community in Toronto remains generally one of the most disadvantaged in terms of income and employment. Blacks and native peoples are, sadly, even more disadvantaged in these terms. At the same time, the Latin American origin community is heterogeneous and includes many successful professional and business families. The community benefits, then, from role models of successful economic integration and access to strong leadership.

The youths who participated in this study reveal aspirations and behaviors associated with this context. Many have dropped out of school early, yet would like to go back to school. Some of the older youths have in fact gone back to school after several years away from studies. Nearly all the youths, both male and female, have aspirations for occupational success, within the skilled trades or as college or university graduates. For some, however, getting a decent job has been and continues to be a struggle. Getting low-paid and hard work, in contrast, seems to have been easy over the period of concern (basically the mid-to-late 1990’s) despite the relatively high levels of youth unemployment in effect in Toronto through mid-1998 (when this study began). Youth unemployment abated fairly dramatically by late 1999, when the study ended, but giving the late timing of this shift, we are unable to comment on how it affected Latino youth employment practices and aspirations.

Project Assessment and Future Priorities

Research focus and objectives:

We have learned much from the study and can now see in retrospect that some of the objectives were “off centre” or too vague. This was particularly true of framing in the original proposal of “safety” and “violence”, as well as the emphasis given in that proposal to the importance of home country (as opposed to origin culture) in the settlement experiences of the youths.

Two emergent themes in the study were not originally well conceptualized. One is the importance of expressive Latino culture (music, dance) for youths. We tried to pick up on this through a sub-study of music added late in the project.

The other is the potential for Latino youth involvement in organized effort to overcome negative Latin American and Latino stereotyping. It was understood in the original proposal that such a potential might be relevant to a second phase “dissemination” project. The discussions with the youths confirm this potential and suggest that it is far greater than we originally imagined. It is, however, currently a diffuse and largely unorganized potential that could only be developed with a focused effort and appropriate institutional resources.

In other respects the study focus and objectives led to conceptual and policy insights of the kind we had hoped for.

Research Design

The major benefit of a small qualitative study is that it clarifies hypotheses and provides new insight for future exploration in larger studies and pilot projects to improve the lives of the participants and their community. As these goals were achieved, we have no further comment on the research design for the present study.

Training

There was no formal training component within this study. However, the research assistants received informal training and experience in one or more aspects of the data collection and analysis, such as conducting focus group interviews, preparing and analyzing interview transcripts, designing and conducting a survey, and so on. In each case this contributed to their training as students or professionals, as follows:

· Luis Carrillos completed a four year certificate as a Youth Worker at George Brown College in 1999. He continues to work at the Hispanic Development Council as Director of the HDC Youth Program.

· Blanca Serrano completed her undergraduate degree in Social Work at Ryerson as this project was just getting started and used the part-time work in this project to further develop her professional skills. She is now employed full time with the Ontario Ministry of Health in relation to health outreach to minority communities.

· Gabriela Torres is now writing her dissertation in the PhD programme in Social Anthropology at York University. Her topic concerns human rights in Guatemala, but she continues with an interest in Latin American transmigration and Latino youth.

· Brigido Galvan was not originally part of the research team and entered only at the end with an effort to fill a gap in the original study with respect to the evident importance of expressive culture (music and dance) for Latino youth. This theme is part of his ongoing PhD dissertation in Ethnomusicology at York University.

· Several of the youths who participated in the project, particularly those who continued to assist with the questionnaire design and interviewing, also received indirect training in this aspect of the project.

Future Research and Program Priorities

The present study suggests the following future steps:

· A dissemination project in which the findings of this study are communicated through workshops and short reports to relevant organizations within the Latin American community in Toronto and to various service organizations working with youths and with the Latin American community. The project would include the preparation of materials for this outreach, the organization of workshops and meetings for presentation and discussion of the findings, and a summary of the reaction of targeted groups to these materials;

· A project designed to incorporate youths and young adults from the Latin American community in programs intended to address the issues they feel are most important. These would naturally include efforts to overcome prejudice and stereotypes affecting them. Participants in the study point to the positive role that Latino-youth popular culture (original music, rap lyrics, expressive dance) can play in bringing youths together to reflect actively on their identity and to plan events within and for their community that would serve to build pride and favourable external recognition;

· Research to compare the findings from the present study with what is taking place in other places in Canada where there are large Latin American communities, and to assess with other data sources (such as the census data analysis originally planned for the current study) the broader context for understanding the findings of small, qualitative studies.

2. Building Bridges: The Collaborative Development of Culturally Appropriate Definitions

of Child Abuse and Neglect for the South Asian Community

Research team (lead researcher, partners):

Nico Trocme, Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto

Usha George, Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto

Dorothy Herberg, Atkinson School of Social Work, York University

Uzma Shakir, South Asian Family Support Services

Bruce Leslie, Children’s Aid Society of Metropolitan Toronto

Start date: September 1998

Date of completion: September 1999

Amount awarded from CERIS $ 12,970

Abstract

This study emerged from concerns raised by providers of social services to South Asian-Canadians that many of their clients experienced many problems with the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) during child welfare interventions. These service providers felt that problems arose because of a lack of understanding of the norms, values and parenting approaches of the group. A mixed-method exploratory study was conducted with 29 South Asian parents, 18 mothers and 11 fathers, to understand the discipline styles and help-seeking approaches of South Asian-Canadian parents, what they perceive as unique about their parenting approaches and the issues that they confront in raising children in Canada.

Findings from the study suggest that what South Asian-Canadians consider to be appropriate and inappropriate parenting does not differ substantially from the standards used by the Children’s Aid Societies in Ontario. However, participants were fearful that these families would be treated more harshly by the system and that they would experience greater problems as their values would not be understood by the CAS. They also had a strong sense that their values are judged and invalidated by society generally. Parents identified the stressors on South Asian immigrant families in parenting their children in a Canadian context and the ways in which they negotiate these stressors. The findings are useful for child welfare and support practitioners to better understand the cultural and contextual issues for South Asian-Canadian families so as to provide culturally relevant services to families that come to their attention. Issues for consideration for service providers is the reluctance on the part of South Asian-Canadian parents to seek help outside the family and to report concerns they may have about families.

Overview of Research Conducted

Background

The increasing diversity of the Canadian population has placed demands on mainstream institutions to ensure that services meet the needs of minority populations. A considerable challenge has been to Children’s Aid Societies (CASs), which provide mandated child protection services to families from diverse backgrounds. Still, many immigrant groups are finding the interventions of the Children’s Aid Society very problematic. They feel that current child protection standards used and the corresponding interventions are not sensitive to culturally diverse child rearing practices. The large numbers of clients on child welfare caseloads who identify their birth to be outside Canada (50 percent for CAS of Metropolitan Toronto), differential representation of minority children on child welfare caseloads and a dearth of knowledge about minority groups despite a legal requirement for culturally sensitive services (CFSA), makes it essential to develop knowledge in the area.

Method

An exploratory mixed-method study was conducted with 29 parents – 18 mothers and 11 fathers – of South Asian background. This group was chosen as the focus of the research for three reasons:

(1) Providers of social services to South Asian families involved with the child welfare system identified this as an area that needed attention. They requested collaboration with the university to conduct research in the area. The CAS of Metro Toronto also identified this as an essential area of research. Their research director noted that the agency provided child protection intervention to an increasing number of families of South Asian background, yet there was a serious lack of knowledge available about the group. Over a period of a year, joint meetings with community members, service providers and academics had helped to better understand the nature of the problem and to develop collaborative relationships;

(2) Research has identified differential rates of substantiation for different forms of maltreatment for South Asians by the CAS when compared to white families; and

(3) South Asians confront barriers to services and are at risk for ethnocentric practice by mainstream agencies because of their racial, cultural and linguistic diversity.

We were interested in understanding the child-rearing norms and values of a diverse group, their help-seeking behaviours, whether they perceive their child rearing approaches to be different to those of the dominant community, issues they confront in raising children in Canada and ways in which they negotiate these.

We chose a mixed-method research approach, with both a quantitative and a qualitative component to our study for several reasons. Previous studies had used quantitative techniques to record the differences in what parents from diverse backgrounds identified as abusive and used this information to demarcate differences in child rearing approaches among diverse groups. This approach, however, did not provide a comprehensive understanding of the group and the rationale for specific expectations of children and parents, contextual issues that parents struggled with and healthy ways in which struggles were negotiated. The result was that the behaviours of groups were evaluated, either as better or worse than a normative center, that of the dominant group.

With the current study we sought to move away from such an approach. A two-part exploratory descriptive procedure utilizing questionnaires and focus group interviewing was employed. Questionnaires that included case vignettes developed to elicit what parental behaviours are considered to be appropriate and inappropriate were administered. Culture specific expectations of children were included in the vignettes to understand how South Asian parents in Canada negotiate these expectations. Information on the group’s help-seeking behaviour when encountering child rearing problems was sought and participants were asked to elaborate qualitatively the reasons for their responses. This section provided parents with the opportunity to distinguish the importance of culture specific expectations of children while also assessing the responses of parents to non-compliance by children to these expectations. The questionnaire helped to focus the study on child discipline issues while also providing an opportunity for parents to privately discuss issues that they may not want to discuss in personal conversations.

Subsequent to completing the questionnaire parents were interviewed in a focus group. The aim of the focus group was to enrich the quantitative data. Participants were asked what they considered to be appropriate and inappropriate discipline, what community sanctions exists for behaviour that is considered inappropriate, who they contact in situations where problems are encountered, whether they felt that their parenting approaches were different to that of mainstream parenting, and issues they encounter in raising children in Canada. Focus group interviewing was the preferred method of collecting data as the aim of the study was not to gain insight from each specific individual about their thoughts on parenting but rather to ascertain how participants as a group thought about the subject matter being discussed. Within-group differences as well as similarities were of interest as were areas that raised discussions and understanding of how these were addressed in a group. Focus group interviews provide certain advantages that other qualitative data gathering techniques do not. Through discussion about conscious, semiconscious and unconscious psychological and socio-cultural characteristics and processes, researchers can learn about specific topics. Interactions between members can lead to the introduction of and elaboration of different aspects of a topic.

Recruitment occurred through referrals from local service providers, leaflet postings, presentations at community centres, English as a Second Language classes, and local gathering places of the group. Other interviewees referred several respondents. South Asian-Canadian parents who had been in the country less than twelve years were included in the study. All individuals who had immigrated directly from the South Asian region – India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and so forth and who identified themselves as South Asian were included. South Asians from other parts of the world were not included in the sample as these groups would have additional influences from their countries of origin confounding the findings of the study. Many factors influence the changes individuals and families experience as they settle in a new country; however, a decision was made to set the limit of immigration to Canada at twelve years as it provided a greater opportunity of eliciting responses that are uniquely South Asian. This time frame can also highlight the contextual issues that may be prevalent due to the resettlement process.

Participants were chosen to represent gender, religion, education and socioeconomic status. In selecting the mix for the focus groups, efforts were made to ensure that all participants in a specific group spoke a common language. Since the project manager and the research assistant spoke four South Asian languages (Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Gujerati) and English, the focus group interviews were conducted in one of these languages.

Recruitment and interviewing was conducted by the project manager, a doctoral student of South Asian background, and the research assistant, also of South Asian background, who is planning to apply for doctoral studies. These group facilitators were integral to the project as they provided access to the community, developed culturally specific vignettes, promoted greater openness during the interviews, provided language interpretation during interviews and cultural interpretation during the analyses.

Focus group discussions were recorded and transcribed. The project manager and research assistant conducted content analysis of the first two focus group discussions and identified the themes that emerged. Additional themes were added as analysis proceeded. By the fifth focus group no new themes emerged and it was clear that saturation had been reached. SPSS was used to organize and analyze the quantitative data. Several team members reviewed the themes to assess if the interpretations were appropriate and grounded in the data.

Results

Participants considered persistent use of physical discipline, use of physical discipline to the exclusion of other methods of discipline, use of an instrument, leaving bruises, spanking in vulnerable areas such as the head and the face and use of physical force with older children to be inappropriate. Other actions of parents considered inappropriate were: both parents being very busy; not having rules for children; not teaching cultural ways; parents fighting in the presence of children; reprimanding children in the presence of others in a way that causes them embarrassment; and neglecting children. Neglect included lack of supervision, inappropriate clothing for the weather, lack of responding to a dangerous situation and the lack of parental involvement in assessing the safety of children. Participants identified a number of strategies used for disciplining children. These included: talks with the child; asking the father to intervene; telling the child stories that capture acceptable behaviours in children; taking away privileges; ignoring the inappropriate action of the child; being emotionally unresponsive to the child; removing oneself from the situation if one is becoming very angry; withholding emotionally from the child; and telling the child of the shame they are bringing to the family.

Two themes that emerged strongly in our research were that of parental responsibility and of expectations of children. With regards to parental responsibility parents considered it to be important to have routines for children and parents were to set examples for their children. Teaching of culture and religion was also considered to be extremely important. Participants viewed the teaching of culture and religion as both providing a moral base for children as well as acting as a shield against racism in society. Important themes regarding expectations for children was that of respect for elders, listening to them and being obedient to their wishes. Other themes in this respect were that children should learn about culture, have an affiliation to religion and have a strong work ethic.

Participants felt that it was ideal to access help firstly from family members. They identified grandparents, brothers, sisters and other elders in the family. However, some noted that they preferred help from close friends rather than family. Participants noted several problems in obtaining help from family members. They noted that since the move to Canada, family members were not always available. Even if there was family here, often the closeness that existed between family members was no longer present because of distance and the fast-paced lifestyle in Canada. Another issue in seeking help from family members was that of privacy. Participants did not want others in the family to know of their problems. There was a sense of shame around experiencing problems, especially problems with children. There was a concern that family members would judge them for experiencing problems.

Religious leaders were also considered for help, although not as strongly as one would have expected. Participants missed the ability to easily access help from neighbours and the support that they had from living in neighbourhoods where there was a similarity of values.

In the Canadian context family and community members were generally reluctant to intervene if they found that parents were experiencing difficulties. A few participants reported that they would intervene and some have helped families both directly as well as to access help and community supports. Participants were reluctant to report problems in a family to the CAS as they were concerned that these families would then face greater problems rather than get the needed help. There was a sense that western society, of which the CAS is a part, does not have an understanding of South Asian customs and values and that social workers would not be supportive of these when providing services.

Indeed, participants felt that South Asians had an approach that was different to the mainstream. They reported that for South Asians there was less focus on the part of parents on their individual needs, there was a greater focus on the family as a group, on all members working for the good of the family unit and parents remaining involved in the lives of their offspring even into adulthood. Some unique values that participants identified were respect for elders, acceptance of the decision of elders, modesty, privacy, non-acceptance of premarital sexual relationships and early dating and having religion as an important guide for values. Participants also commented that there was a commonality of values amongst South Asians despite affiliation to different religious groups.

Participants identified a number of issues, both cultural and contextual, that they experienced in raising their children in Canada. Although there have been benefits to moving to Canada there have also been difficulties. Cultural differences place stress on parenting and in transmitting values. Parents sometimes have increased the practice of religion and adherence to culture as it is one way of establishing pride, combating denigration in society and having some of their values transmitted to their children. They find that mainstream values are pervasive, imparted at schools and other institutions placing stress on parents in transmitting their values. In addition there is a lack of a close knit extended family/neighbourhood to support transmittal of values, South Asian values are not validated in society and are in fact denigrated and there is greater emphasis on material goods in Canada. Still, as parents have immigrated to give their children advantages, they have the desire give their children as much as possible. Lifestyle differences in Canada due to the weather also makes parenting stressful. There is a greater need for parents to occupy children during leisure times. Lack of extended family adds to these difficulties. Participants recognized that non-South Asian Canadian parents are also experiencing stress in child rearing because of changes in society.

Program, Policy and Research Implications

Although qualitative studies are designed to be neither representative nor generalizable, our findings do provide insights for program development and indicate areas for future research that may have important implications for policy development.

Program Development

Program developers need to take a holistic approach to South Asian families and consider both the contextual and cultural issues that are prevalent for South Asians in the Canadian context. Clearly, this group does not conform with the directives issued in some training programs that “some ethnic or cultural backgrounds may be more likely to condone severe spankings or beatings as a form of discipline”. Participants made a clear distinction between appropriate and inappropriate actions and persistent use of physical discipline is not condoned. What participants reported as being inappropriate would not differ from the eligibility spectrum for service used by CASs in Ontario. However, program developers need to include South Asian values and norms in service provision. Participants provided a wealth of information about ways to discipline children that were not abusive. These should be included in services provided to South Asians. Certain core values may lead to tension between service providers and South Asian families, such as a high expectation of respect for elders, the importance of listening to the advice of elders, strong adherence to religion and rules around dating and premarital sex. If parents come to the attention of the CAS for abusive or neglectful behaviour, it should not be assumed that this behaviour is cultural. Parents may be experiencing problems in a number of areas. The action may result from an effort to transmit values in an environment that denigrates such values as well as a number of other factors such as personality of individuals in the family, problems in finding employment and so forth. Taking an ecological perspective, South Asians face a particularly harsh environment and program developers must make all efforts to provide services in ways that do not exacerbate this environment. However, as with parents from the mainstream some best efforts may not help to resolve problems and this may be due to a variety of reasons.

Policy and Research Implications

Although the Child and Family Services Act currently specifies that services should be culturally sensitive, there needs to be greater efforts by service providers to develop policies at the local levels to operationalize the concept. Policy should be developed to clarify the concept further and then require social workers to take training to learn to apply the concepts. Participants in this study provided a wealth of information that could be used by service providers to develop policy and in training.

Further research should be conducted to continue the knowledge base in this area, not only with other South Asians but also with members of other diverse groups.

South Asian Canadians are now living in a context that is different from the context they left behind. This new environment has advantages as well as challenges. One of the challenges may be the disruption caused to families when they move and the gap created by this disruption. The study has provided information on how parents are negotiating and managing in the new context. Efforts need to be made to develop programs that support newcomers who are struggling with these issues and funding is needed to support such programs.

Nature of the Research Collaboration

The CERIS grant helped to strengthen links with local service providers. The research addressed an issue of direct concern to the community partners involved and thereby established credibility about the value of academia and local service providers collaborating to conduct research that is meaningful for practice. Without community partners identifying the need for the research, having a participatory voice in various stages of the study and facilitating recruitment, this study would not have the rich data that it produced.

Training Opportunities

Both research assistants played key roles in the project. One was a doctoral student while the other had plans to apply for doctoral studies but needed current research experience to enhance her application for the program. Under supervision of the principal investigator and the co-investigator they developed their skills in conceptualizing research, linking the appropriate research method to the research question, recruitment, question development, analysis and writing. While both are co-presenters at a conference, one, Sarah Maiter, has also presented independently at a conference. Her proposal to the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children has also been accepted for July 2000. There are further plans for her to present at local hospitals, schools and social service agencies. Ms. Maiter is currently writing an article from the research for submission to a peer-reviewed journal’s special issue on cultural diversity. She will also be including aspects of the findings in a chapter that she has been asked to write for a book on cross-cultural social work practice. The experience gained on the project has helped Ms. Maiter to conceptualize and refine her doctoral research contributing to her progress in the program. As a result of her work on the project she is conducting research that will contribute to better services for South Asian-Canadians. The research assistant, Ms Uzma Shakir has been hired as the Executive Director for the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians. Experience on the project contributed to her gaining this employment.

Dissemination:

Conferences: Nine

Published Working Papers: conference proceeding, and one paper on the CERIS website

Published Journal Articles: two papers accepted for publication, one paper currently submitted.

Published Chapters in Books: One book chapter contains reference to the project although not

based entirely on the grant alone.

Other: Presentations at hospitals and other social service agencies

B. Health Domain

1. The Health Effects of Reductions in Welfare Payments and Hospital Closures on Immigrant Populations in Southeast Toronto: A Ten Year Time Trend Analysis

Research team (lead researcher, partners):

Richard Glazier, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto

Marsha Cohen, Department of Health Administration, University of Toronto

Elizabeth Badley, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto

Stephen Hwang, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto

Robin Badgley, Department of Public Health Sciences (emeritus), University of Toronto

Diane Pattychuk, Toronto Health Department

Southeast Toronto Project (SETO - Community Residents, Central Neighbourhood House,

City of Toronto Department of Health, St. Michael’s Hospital, South Riverdale Community Health Centre, Regent Park Community Health Centre, University of Toronto)

Centre for Research in Women’s Health

Caledon Institute of Social Policy

Start date: September 01, 1998

Date of completion: December 2001

Amount awarded from CERIS: $45,000

Amount awarded from other sources of funding:

Related projects examining the effects of socioeconomic status have funding as follows:

St. Michael’s Hospital Inner City Health Program: $70,000 per year

NHRDP approx $50,000 per year for three years ($22,800 in 1998-99; $53,000 in 1990-00; $52,000 in 2000-01; $22,092 in 2001-02)

Medical Research Council of Canada (MRC): $38,760 per year for four years

Abstract:

Dramatic changes to health and social policy have taken place in Ontario over the last five years with few attempts to measure their impact on health outcomes. This study explored service providers’ opinions about the impact of four major policy changes on the health of recent immigrant and refugee communities in Toronto’s inner city.

Reductions in funding for welfare, hospitals and community agencies were seen to have had major effects on the health of newcomers. Emergent themes included erosion of the social determinants of health, reduced access to health care, increased need for advocacy, deterioration in mental health, and an increase in wife abuse.

Several areas were identified where policy changes were perceived to have had a negative impact on the health of recent immigrants and refugees. This study provides insights for policy-makers, inner-city planners and researchers conducting population-based studies of immigrant health.

Research Outcomes:

Ten key informants were interviewed representing nine community agencies that serve newcomers. Seven key informants were women and three were men. The cultural background of the participants varied, with representation from Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Latin America. They had worked at their agencies an average of 7 years (range 4 – 15). They included two physicians who provided clinical care to newcomers, two registered nurses who were involved in clinical care and community health promotion, four community workers, and two executive directors who were involved in program planning, administration and staffing of programs related to immigrant and refugee health.

The following themes emerged:

(1) Reductions in hospital funding and hospital restructuring

Between 1996 and 1998, the provincial government in Ontario reduced funding for hospitals by over 10%. All of the key informants working in health service agencies identified negative impacts resulting from the changes to hospital funding. Key informants felt that funding reductions had resulted in a scarcity of beds that led hospitals to discharge patients into the community earlier than was warranted. Services such as home-care were under increasing strain to care for sicker patients in the community. Consequently both service providers and families faced increased caregiver burdens.

These problems were felt to be particularly difficult for newcomer groups for two reasons. First, newcomers may face language barriers and a lack of familiarity with the system that results in a greater need for advocacy from services providers than that required from Canadian-born clients. Second, many key informant described a culturally-specific notion of familial duty that leads to a greater burden, since new immigrant families tend to assume more of the responsibility for the care of their family members than is typical of a Canadian-born family.

(2) Reductions in funding of community-based health and social services

At the time of the reduction in federal transfer payments, provincial support for community-based health and social service agencies was broadly reduced. Some reports indicate that services targeted at new immigrants and refugee groups were disproportionately affected. Key informants believed that these services losses had broad effects for new Canadians, including: increased barriers to access; increased need for advocacy; increased provider stress; and housing problems.

Key informants identified an urgent need for interpretation services, case-management and culturally appropriate food-bank services. However, funding restrictions had precluded attempts to improve the accessibility of such services for new Canadians. Moreover, changes to health insurance legislation were perceived to have exacerbated existing barriers to access. Six of the key informants noted that a new three-month wait for OHIP eligibility for landed immigrants had caused significant access problems. Unlike landed immigrants, refugee claimants have immediate health care coverage through the Federal Interim Health Program. However, key informants indicated that this plan is inadequate because it is less comprehensive than the provincial plan and it is burdensome for physicians to negotiate.

According to our participants, new Canadians with inadequate health coverage are seeking care at provincially funded community health centres. Staff at these agencies are under pressure to provide care for communities with growing needs from a shrinking poll of social and health service resources. Seven of the then key informants believed that diminishing services have led to an increasing need for patient advocacy that has left less time for other functions such as counselling, preventive care and case-management. This situation has led to a significan amount of stress and burnout.

In addition, nine out of ten key informants noted that there was a scarcity of affordable housing that seemed to be worsening. In new immigrant communities, this placed an extra burden on families to provide housing for their relatives.

(3) Reductions in welfare payments

There was a consensus among our key informants that the 21.6% reduction in welfare benefits and the changes to the qualifying rules have had significant deleterious impacts on immigrant communities in the following areas: quality of life; mental health issues; and wife abuse.

Many of the key informants noted a deepening of poverty in their communities. Newcomers were seen to have become more focused on meeting their basic needs, often at the cost of personal development and quality of life. Similarly, benefit reductions were seen to have contributed to an increase in mental health problems within immigrant communities. In addition to financial strain, low-income individuals were coping with stress that stems from negotiating the increasingly restricted social service system. Increased stress and diminished support were seen to be related to worsening of mood disorders and increases in suicidality.

Nine of ten participants felt that wife abuse was increasing as a result of conditions exacerbated by the policy changes. Key informants argued that benefit reductions limited the ability of women to leave abusive situations. Since 1993, recent immigrants who have had a breakdown in sponsorship and who subsequently require welfare support, are subject to an additional $100 monthly deduction from their benefits. Those who were aware of this policy uniformly viewed it as detrimental to the well-being of new immigrants – and particularly so to immigrant women since it served to further reduce their financial autonomy.

(4) Implementation of user fees for prescriptions

Since July 1996, low-income individuals and families have faced a new $2 co-payment for prescriptions. The majority of key informants (7 of 10) felt that prescription fees had not had a significant impact on patients’ adherence to medications. Many key informants noted that community pharmacies were waiving the $2 user fee. In this sense, community pharmacies, and not low-income communities, absorbed the burden of this funding reduction.

Contribution to training and/or professional development:

The chief focus of training and professional development is with the graduate students involved in the project. Key skills being learned and practised are qualitative interviewing, analysis and interpretation, application of statistical and programming skills to large complex databases, and use of epidemiological tools to examine relationships between immigration, health care utilization and health outcomes.

Dissemination:

Conferences: Eight

2. Pathways and Barriers to Mental Health Care for Ethiopians in Toronto

Research team (lead researcher, partners):

Samuel Noh, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Culture, Community and Health Studies Section, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Clarke Division

Ilene Hyman, Culture, Community and Health Studies, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health,

Clarke Division

Jagama Gobena, Ethiopian Association in Toronto

Start date: July 06, 1998

Date of completion: September 01, 2000

Amount awarded from CERIS: $49,196.75

Amount awarded from other sources of funding: Heritage Canada - $40,000; Culture, Community and Health Studies -Centre for Addiction and Mental Health - Clarke Division (for additional 200 interviews)

Executive Summary

The present document outlines the preliminary findings from epidemiological survey research of Ethiopian adults living in the Greater Toronto Area in 1999-2000. The focus of the study was to determine the prevalence of such major mental disorders as depression, anxiety, Post Trauma Stress Disorder (PTSD) and somatization. The study also describes the utilization rates and patterns of diverse health care services. These issues are critical in all communities of new settlers. However, Ethiopians may be at increased risk for such mental disorders. Many Ethiopian migrants have been exposed to traumatic crisis and events in their home before emigration, and have been wandering for an extended number of years before receiving Canadian permanent residency. It was hoped that the present study would provide new and pivotal information in comprehending the extent and nature of mental health needs in the “exposed” community and in planning social and health care services for the victims of traumatic life experiences in the Ethiopian community as well as those immigrants and refugees in other communities with similar experiences.

This research is the first epidemiological community survey concentrating on the mental health needs in Ethiopian communities in North America. Although the scope of the study has been limited due to fiscal constraints, the findings of the study provide highly valuable information, where some results confirm public perceptions and other results contradict general stereotypes.

Results illustrated in this report are based on data derived from person-to-person interviews with 342 adult participants and a sound representation of adults (aged 18 years or older) of 5000 households identified by this research team.

Introduction

Recent epidemiological literature reports health advantage of foreign-born residents in the leading receiving countries - Australia, Canada and the United States (Hernandez and Charmy, 1999; Vega et al, 1999, Chen et al, 1996; Noh and Avison, 1996). However, such an overarching conclusion may mislead readers to believe that all immigrants and refugees enjoy better health compared to non-immigrant residents of Canada. In fact, considerable variations in health were found across diverse ethnic groups of foreign-born populations. Those with refugee status and previous experiences of refugee camps and traumatic events prior to arrival are more likely to demonstrate many forms of psychopathology.

Ethiopians in Toronto appear to be exposed to most critical risk factors. An analysis of the 1996 census of Toronto residents showed that such risk factors as poverty and unemployment were highest among Ethiopians, as well as Ghanaians and Afghans. Are these rates of risk factors translated into exceeding rates of mental disorders and physical illnesses? Are they receiving adequate health care provisions? While these questions are critical in planning health care and social programs for newly arrived refugees and immigrants, there has been no attempt to estimate the needs of mental health care within the community in distress.

The purpose of this study was to obtain reliable and valid assessments of mental health problems among adult refugees and immigrants from Ethiopia living in the Greater Toronto Area. Specifically, the objectives of the study included:

(1) To improve our understanding of the nature and extent of mental health problems among Ethiopians in Toronto;

(2) To describe the health risk behaviour (alcohol, tobacco, and drug use), among Ethiopians in Toronto;

(3) To identify the patterns of health care utilization among individuals with depression, anxiety, somatic disorders and stressful life events;

(4) To examine the relationship between acculturation, other psychosocial variables, emotional problems as well as service utilization rates; and

(5) To provide input for formal and informal help systems in order to improve the delivery of mental health services to Ethiopians in Toronto.

Background

Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa that has never been under colonial rule. It is a land of great diversity in its topography, climate, people and languages. There are 80 cultural and linguistic groups that live together in Ethiopia. The major ethnic groups include Amhara, Oromo, Tigrean, Sidama, Shankilla, Gurage, Somali, and Afar. The dominant religions are Christianity (mainly Ethiopian Orthodox) and Islam. About 80 percent of the population live in rural areas. According to the 1995 estimate, the literacy rate was about 36 percent. Regarding healthcare, an estimate of 43 percent of the population has access to basic health services. In terms of mental health care services, there is only one psychiatric hospital and 10 psychiatrists in the country.

Until 1974, Ethiopia had been a peaceful country. The many cultural and religious groups had lived together peacefully for a long time. However, in 1974, after a long and peaceful reign, the Derg (military) led by Lt. Col. Mengistu Hailemariam, deposed Emperor Haile Selassie. The Derg stayed in power for 17 years between 1974 and 1991, a period of totalitarian rule, massive militarization, and the adoption of Communism. There were also border clashes with Somalia and a civil war with the province of Eritrea. Thousands of suspected enemies of the military government were tortured and killed and the major exodus of Ethiopian refugees began.

In May 1991, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Party, an ethnic rebel group, overthrew the Derg and formed a transitional government. In 1994, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Party was joined by other ethnic groups to form a Federal Government, which adopted ethnic politics. This created ethnic tension. Opponents of ethnic politics were imprisoned, killed, and the whereabouts of some individuals was unknown, which led to the second wave of exodus of Ethiopian refugees to neighbouring countries, Europe and North America.

Consequently, Ethiopia has become one of the main source countries for immigrants and refugees in North America. During the last twenty-five years, over one million Ethiopians have been displaced within the country and an estimated 1.25 million Ethiopians fled to neighboring countries, such as the Sudan, Kenya, Djibouti and Yemen. A relatively smaller proportion of Ethiopians immigrated to Europe and North America (McSpadden & Moussa, 1993).

Between 1974 and September 1998, over 13,000 Ethiopians migrated to Ontario (CIC immigration report, 1974-1996; George & Mwarigha, 1999). This number does not include inland refugee claimants. Moreover, the mobility of Ethiopians from other provinces to Ontario is known to be very high. According to the Ethiopian Association in Toronto, the current Ethiopian population of Toronto is estimated to be 30,000.

Mental health problems had been major concerns to the Ethiopian community in Toronto. Mental health concerns, particularly suicidal behaviour, were addressed at two community meetings hosted by the Ethiopian Association in Toronto and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (Clarke Division). Participants highlighted the urgent need to develop new approaches to the provision of mental health and social services in order to reduce existing barriers to care and strengthen the community’s own capacity to respond to the needs.

A Steering Committee composed of members of the Ethiopian Association and Culture Community and Health Studies (CCHS) was formed to further develop the current research project. A Community Advisory Committee, composed of 13 health and social professionals and community and religious leaders, was also formed to provide overall guidance and direction. The present project, Pathways and Barriers to Mental Health Care for Ethiopians in Toronto emerged as a result of the community meetings and orchestrated support of the researchers at the CCHS. The project was awarded two years of funding from Canadian Heritage and CERIS. The first phase of the project included the development of a sampling frame and an interview schedule started in July 1998.

Discussions and Implications

One primary objective of this study was to determine the extent of mental health problems as experienced by Ethiopian immigrants in Toronto. The results suggested an estimated lifetime prevalence of depression of 9.8 percent (95 percent CI: 6.6 percent- 13.0 percent). This figure was not significantly different from the provincial rate. But, it was about three times higher than the rate estimated for southern Ethiopia (Awas, Kebede and Alem, 1999). It is difficult to determine the factors that explain such increase in depression among immigrants. However, given that the depression was significantly inflated among those Ethiopians who were previously exposed to refugee camps and traumatic stressful events, we may speculate that the increased depression in immigrants is unlikely to be independent of migratory traumas and settlement stressors.

Furthermore, depression was more prevalent among women than men (Awas, Kebede and Alem, 1999). The opposite pattern was observed in Toronto, a pattern that was also reported in other immigrant/refugee populations. As suggested in qualitative research, the re-establishment of family stability following migration is of prime importance to Ethiopian women. Compared to men, Ethiopian women may be more willing to accept a drop in professional or social status, set aside educational goals, and assume dual responsibilities at work and at home. On the other hand, men were less willing to accept changes in occupational roles and felt more threatened by changing gender roles (McSpadden & Moussa, 1993). Moreover, males in our sample were more likely to have experienced conditions associated with depression (i.e., migration traumatic experiences and refugee camp internment) than females. Thus, Ethiopian men compared to women are more likely to be exposed to adverse mental health consequences of migration and settlement stresses.

Lifetime prevalence and post-migration incidence of depression persistently demonstrated the importance of pre-migration trauma and refugee camp experiences. These traumatic experiences appeared to have long-lasting mental health effects. There is an urgent need for intervention programs that focus on the effect of torture, camps and other trauma. Post migration settlement stresses were also exerting severe adverse effects on the mental health of Ethiopian immigrants and refugees.

Aside from treating the post trauma wounds, social and health care programs need to focus on current financial strains, family conflict and systemic discriminations. Experienced stressful life events, including financial problems, family problems, difficulty at school, illness or death in the family, exerted a strong effect on depressive disorder. Not having any clear motive for migration was also significant risk factor. Again resorting in our qualitative data, many Ethiopians came to Canada simply just to follow other people, or because they heard that Canada is a good place to live, they had a chance to come, or they did not have much to do at home. This group of people lacks the resilience that is often demonstrated by the self-selected immigrants who met the admission criteria of Canadian immigration. Further analyses will explore the data to determine the characteristics of the immigrants of non-specific motives.

Having a strong Ethiopian identity was a protective factor. It is possible that individuals who had high identity scores had access to more personal and social resources than individuals with lower scores. The majority of individuals in the study population belonged to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, a well-established religious institution that serves both spiritual and social needs for many Ethiopians in Toronto. The prevalence of depression was significantly associated with advice and satisfaction and emotional social support satisfactions. The data also showed the protective effect of instrumental social support satisfaction, although statistically not significant.

The findings on the incidence of post-migration depression closely replicated those on lifetime prevalence of depression. Recent stressful life events, primary motives for migration, ethnic identity and the interaction of pre-migration trauma and racial discrimination have a statistically significant effect on the incidence of depression. The incidence of depression was also related to experiences of refugee camps and emotional support satisfaction.

Study findings have implications for the delivery of mental health services to the Ethiopian community in Toronto. It is important for mainstream health professionals to recognize that the effects of pre-migration experiences on mental health may persist in Canada. Settlement services must develop programs to address stressful life events experienced by many Ethiopian newcomers. There may be a need to further develop community-based programs that re-enforce Ethiopian identity and a sense of belonging.

It is alarming that a large majority of Ethiopians did not seek professional help for emotional problems. Some of the reasons why help was not sought were because help was thought to be unnecessary, or there was no solution for the problem, and privacy. However, the utilization patterns in this sample were similar to those of non-immigrant residents of Montreal, and the rate of service use was higher than those found among immigrant groups in Montreal. This may be explained by the facts that Ethiopians were better educated, have had previous contact with Western health care, and have had access to Ethiopian physicians in Toronto. Nonetheless, the rate of service use suggests a need for more effective health education programs to be developed in the community.

Aside from scientific findings, the present research project has made substantial contributions toward mobilization of the community. To present a few specific examples, we list below the activities that had been initiated within the Ethiopian community and mainstream institutions as a result of our project:

A quarterly project newsletter published in English and Amharic (Aemero) is being used to promote awareness and resolution of mental health issues within the Ethiopian community. It includes project updates, articles on mental health and local community events and items of interest to the community (e.g., summer activities). Six issues have been published to date and approximately 800 copies are distributed at Ethiopian churches, restaurants and doctors offices;
The project has been featured at several Ethiopian community events e.g. Ethiopian-Canadian Day, International Soccer competition;
The Ethiopian Association in Toronto established a Task Force to assess mental health problems and care needs within the community and to develop provisional strategies to respond to the identified needs;
The Ethiopian community was featured in an educational series at the CAMH initiated "Meet Our Community Partners" to acquaint CAMH staff with perceptions of mental health and addictions, beliefs about treatment and access to care for Ethiopian immigrants in Toronto;
The Ethiopian community is participating in a project of the Ethnoracial Initiative of CAMH and Mount Sinai Hospital to improve the accessibility of mental health and addiction service to ethnoracial communities in Toronto.

Conclusions

This study is the first community survey of the mental health needs of Ethiopian immigrants in North America. The particular merit of this study is that it has addressed the methodological issues of obtaining a representative sample of a minority population (new immigrants and refugees), which is key in making valid inference about the target population.

In this study, it was observed that many Ethiopian immigrants in Toronto experienced pre-migration trauma, refugee camps and post-migration stressful events, which are known risk factors for the development of depressive disorder. However, the prevalence of depression among Ethiopian immigrants in Toronto was only slightly higher compared to the average rate of the Ontario population (9.8 percent versus 8.3 percent). This may suggest that many of the Ethiopian immigrants have been able to cope with the stresses or they might have had a good social support network in the Ethiopian community.

The lifetime prevalence of depression among Ethiopian immigrants in Toronto was found to be 3 times higher than the lifetime prevalence of depression in Ethiopia. This difference could be due to the fact that many Ethiopians in Toronto had been exposed to numerous risk factors for depression during their migration and resettlement process.

The results of this study also suggested a higher prevalence rate of depression among younger adults, males, currently unmarried individuals, the unemployed, and those with a low level of education. Although statistically significant evidence was lacking, due to a small study size, the findings confirm well-known epidemiological risk factors for depression. The higher depression rate among males compared to females, which was the opposite pattern in Ethiopia, may suggest that males were less likely to accept changes in occupational roles and felt more threatened by changing gender roles. Furthermore, in our sample males were more likely to have experienced factors associated with depression than females.

The results of this study also showed a statistically significant relationship between the prevalence of depression and the well-known risk factors, including experiences of living in refugee camps, motive of migration, and post migration stressful events. These findings suggest urgent needs for developing mental health intervention programs, particularly for those who experienced pre-migration trauma, refugee camps, and stressful life events.

Regarding healthcare utilization, the findings indicate that Ethiopian immigrants in Toronto tend to use more medical care services for emotional and non-emotional problems compared to the immigrant and refugee communities in Montreal, including Caribbean, Vietnamese and Filipinos. However, among our study respondents, who met CIDI depression criteria, only 19.4 percent sought medical services for emotional problems. Therefore, there is a need to develop programs that may help these individuals in accessing mental health care services.

Finally, we hope that this study will provide valuable information that helps to understand the extent and nature of the mental health care needs of Ethiopians in Toronto. It may also help in planning social and health care services for the individuals in the Ethiopian community, who were exposed to traumatic life experiences, as well as those immigrants and refugees in other communities with similar experiences.