Executive summary
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Most previous studies on the determinants of immigrant socioeconomic outcomes have focused on individual human capital and other socio-demographic factors. An emerging international literature suggests that, beyond the impact of individual-level factors, the country of origin of immigrants, that is, the source country, also matters. Many attributes of source countries, such as economic development, education quality, and official language, can help to explain the large variations in the socioeconomic outcomes of immigrant groups. This study examines whether source-country gender roles influence the labour supply and the division of housework of immigrant families in Canada.
Canadian immigrants come from a range of source countries, which vary considerably in gender roles. Examining gender roles is therefore valuable in determining whether cultural norms continue to influence labour activities after immigrants have been exposed to the new environment of their host country. This study focuses on the "portability" of gender roles for immigrant women; that is, it examines whether source-country gender roles continue to influence immigrant families’ labour and housework activities after arrival in Canada. This paper answers four questions: (1) Are indicators of traditional gender roles in the source countries of immigrant wives correlated with their labour force participation and contributions to housework in the years after landing in Canada?; (2) Does the strength of these relationships diminish with time in Canada? That is, how durable are the effects of source-country gender roles?; (3) Are the relationships between traditional gender roles and labour outcomes different when husbands and wives are from different source countries?; and (4) Are source-country gender roles also correlated with the labour activities and housework contributions of immigrant husbands?
The analysis examines immigrants aged 20 to 65 who are married or living as common-law spouses. The data set consists of immigrant source-country-level attributes attached to individual immigrants in micro-data files. The Canadian 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, and 2006 Census 20% sample micro-data files provide individual-level variables on labour market activities, housework, and other socio-demographic characteristics. The data for immigrant source-country attributes are compiled from various sources and contain socio-economic indicators for the years 1970 to 2005. The main source-country characteristics examined are the female–male labour activity ratio and the female–male ratio in secondary school enrolment rate.
The results of the analysis show that source-country female–male labour activity and female–male education are both positively associated with immigrant wives’ labour supply and negatively associated with immigrant wives’ housework. That is, women from source countries with more "traditional" gender roles (i.e., the male breadwinner/female caregiver model) are less likely to participate in the labour force and also perform a larger amount of housework than women from countries with less traditional gender roles. Immigrant women who arrive from source countries with higher ratios of female–male secondary education also experience greater equity with their husbands with respect to their share in paid work and housework.
The effect of source-country female–male labour activity on immigrant women’s shares in family paid and unpaid labour decreases with length of stay in Canada, although the magnitude of the decline is small, particularly in the effect on housework. This decrease is attributed primarily to the fact that the effect on immigrant husbands’ labour supply fades over time but that the effect on immigrant wives’ own labour supply remains stable. The female–male labour activity effect on husbands’ housework is small and diminishes by 15 years after arrival; however, the effect on wives’ housework remains large after 30 years in Canada. Therefore, source-country gender roles continue to play a role in immigrant women’s household labour, even several years after they have moved to a new social and institutional environment.
The immigrant status of women’s husbands also influences the extent to which source-country gender roles affect immigrant wives’ labour activities. The effect of source-country female–male labour activity on immigrant wives’ paid and unpaid labour is reduced, but does not disappear, when immigrant women have immigrant husbands who are from a different source country. The effect of source-country female–male labour activity is larger when immigrant wives and their husbands share the same immigration background, but the effect remains significant even when immigrant wives and their husbands have different immigration backgrounds.
The findings of this paper indicate that the paid and unpaid labour activities of immigrant women are not independent of their countries of origin, as their labour decisions in Canada continue to be influenced by the gender roles of their source countries.
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