Study: Economic integration of immigrants' children

View the most recent version.

Much has been written about the widening gap in earnings and low-income rates between recent immigrants to Canada and their Canadian-born counterparts. However, the challenges associated with the integration of immigrants often extend beyond the first generation.

This study, published today in the October 2007 edition of Perspectives on Labour and Income, focuses on second-generation Canadians aged 17 to 29—young men and women born in Canada to two immigrant parents between 1967 and 1982.

Using data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, the study compares, over a six-year period (either 1996 to 2001 or 1999 to 2004), the earnings of these second-generation Canadians who have a strong labour force attachment to those of their peers with Canadian-born parents. It also compares the two groups' family characteristics, educational attainment and geographical distribution, and the extent to which these factors may lead to differences in earnings.

Taking education levels into account, the study found that young women with two immigrant parents had significantly higher hourly and annual earnings than young women with Canadian-born parents during the entire six-year period.

Among young men, on the other hand, there was little evidence of such a second-generation earnings advantage. In fact, everything else being equal, some visible minority men with two immigrant parents appeared to have a significant disadvantage in earnings compared to their peers with Canadian-born parents.

In the case of women, roughly half of their advantage in hourly earnings was due to geographic distribution. Three-quarters of young Canadians with two immigrant parents were concentrated in Ontario and British Columbia, and more than three-quarters lived in large urban centres. In contrast, half of their counterparts with Canadian-born parents lived in less economically prosperous regions, such as Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. About 60% lived in smaller cities, small towns and rural areas.

A large part of the annual earnings advantage among young women with two immigrant parents was also because they were less likely to have been married or had children.

By the end of the six-year period when they had reached the ages of 22 to 34, less than half of women with two immigrant parents had been married. Only a third had given birth to, adopted, or raised children. In contrast, over 60% of those with Canadian-born parents had been married, and close to half had had children.

The situation was quite different for young second-generation men. The study found little evidence of an advantage in hourly or annual earnings relative to their third- and higher-generation male counterparts.

In fact, generalizations about young second-generation men were difficult to make since they tended to be more heterogeneous in terms of earnings than their female counterparts.

Part of the extra heterogeneity arose because visible minority status had no bearing on women's earnings, but it had a large impact on those of men.

The study found that among young men born in Canada to two immigrant parents, visible minorities fared markedly worse. Everything else being equal, their earnings were significantly lower than those of young men with Canadian-born parents.

The earnings of second-generation men who were not visible minorities, on the other hand, were no different from those of men with Canadian-born parents. In fact, the study found some evidence suggesting that the earnings of those with one immigrant parent might be higher.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 3889.

The article, "Economic integration of immigrants' children", is now available in the October 2007 online edition of Perspectives on Labour and Income, Vol. 8, no. 10 (75-001-XWE, free), from the Publications module of our website.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Boris Palameta (613-237-2945; bpalameta@srdc.org), Social Research and Demonstration Corporation, or Geneviève Clavet (613-951-0615; genevieve.clavet@statcan.gc.ca), Income Statistics Division.