Occupational mobility of immigrant men: Evidence from longitudinal data for Australia, Canada and the United States

Marc Frenette, V. Hildebrand, J. McDonald and C. Worswick. 2003, in C. Beach, A. Green, and J. Reitz (eds.), Canadian Immigration Policy for the 21 st Century. McGill-Queen's University Press

Context

The adjustment of immigrant to host economies is a topic of considerable policy relevance. Underlying much of this adjustment process are the occupational dynamics of immigrants, an issue that is not well-documented.

Objective

One of the goals of the paper is to examine whether the immigrants to the market-oriented economies of Australia, Canada and the United States faced similar adjustment experiences.

Findings

Immigrants are generally under-represented in the management and professional occupations after arriving in the host country and over-represented in the 'not working' category.

Over time, these differences tend to disappear.

These results are consistent with the notion that many immigrants need time away from the workforce to search or re-train for an appropriate job.

Data source : Canada: Labour Market Activity Survey, Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, selected years.

Australia: Labour Mobility Survey, selected years.

United States: Survey of Income and Program Participation, selected years.