The rise in low-income rates among immigrants
in Canada
Garnett Picot and Feng Hou
Business and Labour Market Analysis
Division
Analytical Studies Branch research paper series, No. 198
Context
The
labour market outcomes of Canada's recent immigrants have deteriorated through
the 1980s and 1990s. This no doubt affected immigrants' low-income status. Low-income
among immigrants is not only relevant to immigrant selection and settlement policies,
but is also related to much broader issues of social cohesion/exclusion.
Objectives
The
study addresses the following questions:
- Have low-income rates increased
among successive cohorts of entering immigrants, both in absolute terms and relative
to the Canadian born (they have),
- Is this increase due to changes in
their characteristics (e.g., education, age, source country, language etc.),
- Do
low-income rates fall as new immigrants acquire Canadian experience, and are there
signs that low-income rates fall faster among the more recent entering cohorts
with the higher entry level rates, resulting in some "catch-up", and
- In the major Canadian cities, to what extent was the deterioration in
the city level low-income rates during the 1990s concentrated among immigrants?
Findings
The low-income rates among "recent" immigrants (in
Canada for less than five years) almost doubled between 1980 and 1995, and then
fell during the strong recovery of the late 1990s. However, when focusing on outcomes
at business cycle peaks (1980, 1990 and 2000) to establish comparable long-term
trends, low-income rates rose continuously for each successive cohort of immigrants.
The gap in the low income rates between recent immigrants and the Canadian-born
widened significantly over the past two decades.
The changing composition
of "recent" immigrants with respect to language, source country, family type and
age accounted for, at most, half of the rise in the low-income rate among this
group, and likely substantially less than that.
The increase in low income
rates was widespread among recent immigrants in all age groups, family types,
language groups, and education groups. There was some variation by region of origin.
Low-income rates among immigrants tend to fall with time spent in Canada.
Among the more recent entering cohorts with the higher low-income rates at entry,
the rate of decline is faster. However, low-income rates remain higher among immigrant
cohorts of the late 1980s and early 1990s than among their counterparts in the
1970s (comparing groups with a comparable number of years in Canada).
The
rise in the low-income rates in the three major Canadian cities, and in Ontario
and B.C. during the 1990s was largely concentrated among the immigrant population.
Among the Canadian born, low-income rates have been falling over the past two
decades, and rising among immigrants. So, in the three largest cities, the rise
in low-income between 1990 and 2000 was entirely concentrated among immigrants.
Data
source: Census, 1981-2001.
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