Employment and income |
Aspects of poverty Employment and income |
Aspects of poverty
Back to Resource Library Index Page
Earnings of immigrants
A Review of Low Income and Inequality in Canada: Trends, Persistence, Target Groups and an International Perspective
http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/11F0024MIE/pdf/abstracts/series3/3-a.picot.pdf
Low income among immigrants is the component of low income that has been increasing the fastest during the past 10 to 20 years in Canada. A substantial discussion of this issue is included. Summary, Statistics Canada’s Economic Conference, 2004Assimilation of Immigrant Household Cohorts over Time in Canada: An Examination of the Lower Tail of Income Distributions
http://economics.dal.ca/RePEc/dal/wparch/ginisbgp.pdf#search=%22immigrant%20%20%22
This paper uses a poverty intensity measure to provide additional empirical evidence on the assimilation of immigrant cohorts over time in Canada. This method is used because one of the reliable, and conservative, indicators of the poor integration of immigrants is the disproportional, prolonged poverty in these immigrant cohorts. - The empirical results show that the integration
appeared to be stronger for the earlier immigrant cohorts in Canada but it was markedly slower for the 1981- 1985 and 1986-1997 immigrant cohorts during the period of 1986 - 1997.Immigrants’ Declining Earnings: Reasons and Remedies
http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/backgrounder_81.pdf
Earnings of recent immigrants are declining. Those who arrived in the late 1980s and late 1990s earned less than those who arrived in the late 1970s. There are many reasons- and some remedies. For starters, the federal government should revise the Skilled Worker Category for selecting immigrants.Driving a Cab After Graduating from University : The Incidence of Overqualification Among Recent Immigrants, 1991-2001
http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/11F0024MIE/pdf/abstracts/series2/
2-g.galarneau.pdf
At least one fourth of recent immigrants with a university degree are in jobs requiring at most a high school diploma. The chances of recent immigrants' being overqualified are higher among members of visible minority groups, individuals in non-applied fields of study, individuals from Asian countries and women. Among Canadian-born men, those who are members of visible minorities are no more likely to be overqualified than others, thereby suggesting that the problems faced by recent immigrant men who are members of visible minorities cannot simplybe explained by discrimination towards visible minority groups… Overqualification has serious consequences for earnings…Abstract, Statistics Canada’s Economic Conference, 2004Earnings Differentials among Ethnic Groups in Canada: A Review of the Research
http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/(xuphlo4545uigrvz0aomxhrw)/app/home/contribution.
asp?referrer= parent&backto=issue,3,10;journal,20,22;linking publicationresults,1:104728,1
or
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/rrse/2000/00000058/00000003/art00003
Canada has a large foreign-born population with an increasingly diverse ethnic profile. The 1986 Employment Equity Act designated ''visible minorities,'' Aboriginal peoples, women, and disabled persons as facing labor market disadvantages. This review of a growing body of research on ethnic earning differentials shows that the sizeable earnings shortfall of Aboriginal peoples could be ''explained'' by their lesser endowments of work-related characteristics. The high variance in discrimination estimates among men can be traced to the treatment of immigration effects, aggregation of diverse ethnic groups, and the choice of the non-discriminatory earnings norm… Abstract, 2000Income disparity - Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Quality of Life Reporting System (QOLRS), 1990-2000
http://www.city.saskatoon.sk.ca/org/city_planning/resources/publications/
Quality_of_Life_Eng.pdf
Improvement in incomes was the result of rapid growth at the highest end of the income scale. Median (i.e., “typical”) family incomes grew significantly in only a limited number of medium-sized municipalities during this time and declined in half of the 20 QOLRS municipalities. Median family income declined significantly in the two largest urban centres: Toronto and Vancouver.Visible minority population - Quality of Life Reporting System Highlights Report
http://www.city.saskatoon.sk.ca/org/city_planning/resources/publications/
Quality_of_Life_Eng.pdf
What had been the visible minority population in several Canadian municipalities will soon make up the largest part of the total population. In 2001, 49 per cent of the City of Vancouver’s residents were considered visible minority. Municipalities like Toronto (43 per cent in 2001) and Peel (39 per cent) will see these populations approaching 50 per cent over the next five years.Educational attainment - Quality of Life Reporting System Highlights Report, 1990-2000
http://www.city.saskatoon.sk.ca/org/city_planning/resources/publications/
Quality_of_Life_Eng.pdf
By 2001, the proportion of QOLRS municipality residents who had completed a post-secondary certificate, diploma, or degree program was approaching 25 per cent, well above the rate in the rest of Canada (16 per cent in 2001)… People older than 15 with less than a Grade 9 education are considered illiterate. Fewer than 3 per cent of the QOLRS population aged 25-34 fell into this category in 1991. By 2001, this number had fallen to 1.6 per cent (3.1 per cent in the rest of Canada). Illiteracy for all QOLRS residents above age 15 fell from close to 11 per cent to under 8 per cent during the same period. The rate of illiteracy in the 15+ age group in the rest of Canada fell from 16 per cent to 11 per cent during this time… Municipalities with a highly educated labour force and a weak local economy may not fulfill expectations and risk losing their highly skilled labour force. Adding to this problem, many newcomers to the country are unable to fulfill their employment goals because their academic credentials are not immediately recognized. Evidence of this phenomenon is already apparent in the form of education levels rising while employment levels remain largely the same. The rapid changes in educational attainment suggest a need to examine more closely changes in the “human capital” of municipalities—a measure of the combination of qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge and the opportunities to use that capital.Labour force participation - Quality of Life Reporting System Highlights Report, 1990-2000
http://www.city.saskatoon.sk.ca/org/city_planning/resources/publications/
Quality_of_Life_Eng.pdf
Income growth of “minority” or “vulnerable” groups was substantially lower during the period 1991-2001 than their “majority” counterparts. One important form of interaction occurs within the context of labour force participation. Participation rates for new immigrants failed to rise between 1991 and 2001; remained a full 8 percentage points lower than non-immigrants; and fell significantly in several larger urban centres.Falling Behind: Our Growing Income Gap
http://www.fcm.ca/english/documents/falling.pdf
2001 Census: As the income gap widens, the groups most at risk of living in poverty are children, lone-parent families, visible minorities, immigrants and refugees, seniors, people with disabilities, and Aboriginal people. Calgary, Saskatoon and Toronto share a number of common experiences… minimum wage. In none of the provinces could a person earn enough money working full time at a minimum wage job, to move out of poverty… Successful approaches are those involving multiple stakeholders representing a range of interests, leadership, locally based solutions, and the capacity to bridge institutional boundaries… Effective public policies and programs, particularly national ones, continue to be important in relieving income disparity. Policy and program timeframes should reflect the complex nature of the income-gap problem. Effective short-term support is needed to get people through difficult periods. Longer term responses are needed to deal with systemic problems and to meet the needs of low-income people… Lack of intergovernmental cooperation and collaboration was identified as one of the reasons little is being done to fix mounting problems in cities.Centre for Social Justice
http://www.socialjustice.org/view.php?storyid=9
The impact of race and immigration status on employment opportunities and outcomes in Canada
In 2001, the unemployment rate for racialized groups was 12.6% compared to 6.7% for the total population… According to Statistics Canada in 2001, male immigrants with a university degree earned 55.8% less than their Canadian-born counterparts while women earned 56.6% less than their female counterparts.The Deteriorating Economic Welfare of Immigrants and Possible Causes
http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/200/301/statcan/research_paper_analytical_11f0019-e/
2005/no262/11F0019MIE2005262.pdf
Contents: The Declining Entry Level Earnings Among Immigrants, The Deteriorating Low-Income Position of Recent Immigrants, Why the Decline in Relative Entry Level Earnings, and Rising Low-Income Among Recent Immigrants? The Changing Characteristics of Immigrants Entering, Other Factors, Source Regions: Education Quality, Language Skills and Discrimination, The Returns to Years of Schooling and the Credentialism Issue, Declining Returns to Foreign Labour Market Experience, Deteriorating Labour Market Outcomes for New Labour Market Entrants in General, of Which Immigrants are a Part, Fluctuations in Macro-Economic Conditions, Strong Competition from the Increasingly Highly-Educated Canadian-Born, Changes in Social Transfer Usage and Other Income Sources. - Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series, Statistics Canada 2005Employment - Household income trends
http://www.unitedwaytoronto.com/who_we_help/pdfs/turningpoint.pdf
Low-income families have experienced the most severe decline in income… the poorest 10% of families in Canada have seen their market income fall by 61.6% between 1986 and 1996… A larger proportion of youth and women work part-time than is the case for men. While most people in these groups work part-time voluntarily, roughly 30% of adult women and 23% of youth would prefer full-time employment.Income penalty: Age Discrimination and the Employment Rights of Elderly Canadian Immigrants
http://www.lcc.gc.ca/pdf/grant.pdf
The incidence of low income among elderly immigrants (17.5 percent among men and 26.4 percent among women) remains unacceptably high and is significantly greater than that for native-born Canadians (11.4 percent for men and 22.6 percent for women). Despite the decline in the incidence of poverty among Canada’s elderly, much economic hardship persists and it is heavily concentrated among specific groups of immigrants… An immigrant’s year of arrival in Canada plays a significant role in explaining current income. Recent cohorts of immigrants, by virtue of their limited number of years in the Canadian labour market, incurred a substantial income penalty.Immigrant Earnings Differentials and Cohort Effects in Canada (Postwar 1992)
http://canada.metropolis.net/research-policy/litreviews/bjot_bib/bjot_bib-04a.html
This paper investigates immigrant earnings differentials for males in Canada and how these earnings have changed over time leading up to 1972 withworkers' year of birth. The paper uses the 1973 Job Mobility Survey, which containsa direct measure of work experience reported independent of age. Thus, using ageas a birthyear index, it is found that crosssectional earnings differentials ofimmigrant men have widened since the later 1960s relative to those of nativebornworkers. This discrepancy is due to a steepening of earningsexperience profiles fornative workers, a flattening of the yearssincemigration earnings profile forimmigrants, and a further flattening of the earningsexperience profile ofimmigrants. Abstract.Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (2003)
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/051013/d051013b.htm
Of the immigrants who found employment, many worked throughout their first two years in Canada. Over half (58%) worked for 18 months or more and three-quarters worked for more than one year… One in five had not had any employment during this period. The majority of these individuals were women (74%), many of whom were spouses or dependents of immigrants in the economic category, or immigrants in the family category. The DailyWhy the earnings of new immigrants to Canada have deteriorated over time (1966-2000)
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/040517/d040517a.htm
The earnings of new immigrants to Canada deteriorated during the 1980s and 1990s because of a complex set of factors involving the value of foreign job experience, language abilities and nation of origin… Immigrant men who arrived between 1995 and 1999 had estimated earnings in their first year in Canada that were on average 24% lower than their counterparts who arrived between 1965 and 1969, after adjusting for inflation. This is with comparable amounts of foreign experience and years of schooling… Roughly one-third of the deterioration in the earnings of new immigrants appears to be the result of a decline in the value of foreign labour market experience. This decline has occurred almost exclusively among men from Canada's non-traditional source regions, which include Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia… It may be that there is an issue regarding the valuation of foreign credentials in the Canadian labour market. However, this analysis suggests that the value of a foreign university degree has fallen little during the past 30 years. Hence, this factor does not contribute significantly to the understanding of the decline in entry earnings. The DailyImmigrants Settling for Less? (1991-2001)
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/040623/d040623c.htm
University-educated immigrants were twice as likely as their Canadian-born counterparts during the 1990s to hold jobs that fell well short of their level of education… At least one in four recent immigrants with a university degree who were employed between 1991 and 2001 had a job requiring no more than a high school education. This was twice the proportion of only 12% among native-born Canadians… From 1991 to 2001, the mismatch rate for recent male immigrants with a degree in the health field jumped from 16% to 26%. Among women it rose from 28% to 36%. This occurred despite current pressure on the health professions and the anticipation of more pressure because of an aging population… Recent immigrants most likely to have low-education jobs in 2001 came from South or Southeast Asia, had a mother tongue other than English or French, were members of a visible minority and were women. The DailyJob Creation (2000-2001)
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/insbrp-rppe.nsf/en/rd00657e.html
More than 127 000 net new jobs were created between the fourth quarter of 2000 and the fourth quarter of 2001. This marks a significant decline from the almost 600 000 new jobs created in the first quarter of 2001. Small businesses (with up to 99 employees) created 117 % of the net new jobs, compensating for the job losses incurred by medium-sized businesses (100 to 499 employees)…. On a year-over-year basis, nearly 290 000 net jobs were created in 2001, three-quarters of these jobs in Ontario, Alberta and Quebec... Overall, 47 % of the jobs were created by firms with fewer than 100 employees. Across provinces, however, the pattern varied considerably. The small business contribution to job creation ranged from -15 % in Nova Scotia to 62 % in Newfoundland. Conversely, large businesses (more than 500 employees) shrank their employment by 11 % in Newfoundland while making up 96 % of net job growth in Nova Scotia.Profile of Poverty - Access to professions and trades (NOIVMWC)
action.web.ca/home/narcc/attach/Two%20Faces%20-%204%5B1%5D%5B1%5D.%20
EMPLOYMENT.rtf
Racism and sexism are a dominant feature of the Canadian workplace. 73% of all cases of race, ethnic and other forms of discrimination happen in the workplace, according to the Ontario Human Rights Commission. Compounded discrimination, for example, the genderized racism faced by racially visible women, is poorly understood or acted on. In addition, human rights commissions rarely have the teeth to enforce judgements and the awards are not large enough to act as deterrents. Canada's immigration and employment policies further place women at risk from traffickers and employers where they may be exposed to forced labour or marriage, rape, torture, execution, and loss of freedom... With "Resources on Employment in Canada" - a long list of related articles.Closing the Wage Gap: Economic Assimilation of Canadian Immigrants
http://www.irpp.org/events/archive/may00/hum.pdf
We explored the role of immigrant status as a source of labour market disadvantage among visible minorities in Canada. We investigated these wage differentials in terms of a "wage gap"; that is, the percentage difference in wages offered for various groups in question relative to the wages offered to whites, employing a standard wage-determinants model with such independent human capital variables as age, gender, education, language knowledge, work experience and the like, regional variables, as well as immigration-variables such as years since migrating to Canada, age at migration, and finally, visible minority group membership. We also corrected for selection bias, where warranted. We computed these wage differentials for immigrants and for native born Canadians, as well as separately for men and women.Education, Credentials and Immigrant Earnings
http://www.econ.ubc.ca/ine/papers/wp020.pdf
Work experience of immigrants in their country of origin is valued much less than the experience of comparable native-born workers. A similar result holds for the years of schooling of immigrants... For immigrants the increase in earnings associated with completing an educational program is higher than that of a comparable native born worker… The human capital of immigrants who complete their education in Canada is not discounted by the Canadian labour market, in contrast to the situation for immigrants who obtained their education before arrival... There are no major changes across immigrant arrival cohorts in the returns to human capital... Immigrants from the US/UK and the native born receive similar returns to both dimensions of education. However, immigrants from other regions generally experience lower returns to years of schooling and larger earnings gains associated with diplomas and degrees, especially postgraduate degrees. The changing composition of immigration is therefore resulting in imported human capital that is less valued on one dimension (years of schooling) and more valued on the other (credentials)... What our results do imply is that the gap in earnings between immigrants and the native-born is narrowed (or at least not widened) by completion of educational programs in Canada.The rise in low-income rates among immigrants in Canada
http://dsp-psd.communication.gc.ca/Collection/Statcan/11F0019MIE/
11F0019MIE2003198.pdf
In the aggregate, low-income rates fell among Canadian born, and rose among most immigrant groups... Immigrant low-income rates have been on a continuous upward long term trend over the 1980, 1990 to 2000 period. This is true regardless of the number of years of Canadian experience (except for those in Canada for more than 20 years)... Degree holders had both the largest increase in the immigrant population share and the low-income rate... The increase in recent immigrant low-income rates was widespread, occurring among immigrants from all age groups, whether the immigrants spoke an official language or not, in all family types (except single parents, who already had an extremely high rate), and all educational levels… In spite of the concern regarding the rising demand for the highly educated, and the needs of the “knowledge based economy”, having a degree, no matter what the discipline, did not protect these recent immigrants from a rising probability of being in low-income… After a number of years in Canada, low-income rates remained higher among more recent entering cohorts than among those of the 1970s… The domestic supply of highly educated workers in Canada has been rising at a rapid pace over the past two decades. The number of women in the labour force with a university degree more than quadrupled between 1980 and 2000, a dramatic change in the stock of the highly educated over a short time span. The number of comparable men more than doubled, so that overall the supply of the highly educated rose approximately 160%. - Written permission pending from Licence Services, Marketing Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0T6.Immigrant job issues
http://directory.womenspace.ca/directory_topics.cgi?Immigration
Resourceful site for immigrants and visible minorities in Canada specializing in practices in the Canadian job market.Immigrant Earnings: Age at Immigration Matters
http://www.queensu.ca/sps/working_papers/files/sps_wp_20.pdf
The results for the years of schooling variable show that the return to schooling for immigrants in the youngest age-at-arrival category (i.e. the return to post-immigration schooling) is about the same as the return earned by the Canadian born. However, the return to pre-immigration schooling (i.e. the return earned by those who immigrated after age 19) is about two-thirds of the return to post-immigration schooling… Immigrants do substantially better if they have English as mother tongue. In fact, our results suggest that points for mother tongue should vary with age at immigration since mother tongue appears to bean especially important determinant of economic integration for those who arrive at an older age.Self-employment and part-time jobs dominate employment growth during the 1990s
http://www.unitedwaytoronto.com/who_we_help/pdfs/turningpoint.pdf
“According to Statistics Canada, a total of 2.6 million Canadians were self-employed at the end of 1998, up 42% since the start of the decade. Self-employment has grown at a rate seven times faster than growth in “employees.” Growth in self-employment has led to less secure employment and lower earnings… In 1995, over 55% of these self-employed individuals earned less than $20,000 annually, and only 2.2% earned over $80,000. Individuals who are self-employed may also lack important benefits such as employment insurance; employer sponsored pensions, disability plans, and basic medical insurance. As a proportion of total employment in Canada, self-employment increased from 14% to 18%, part-time employment increased from 18% to 19%, and fulltime employment fell from 69% to 63%.Working Temporarily in Canada - Overview
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/
Every year over 90,000 foreign workers enter Canada working temporarily to help Canadian employers address skill shortages in Canada. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) ensure that these workers will support economic growth in Canada and create more opportunities for all Canadian job seekers.Jobs Exempt from Work Permit Requirement
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/exempt-1.html
In special situations, you may be able to work temporarily in Canada without holding a work permit issued by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).Immigrant Workers at Risk: The Urgent Need for Improved Workplace Safety and Health Policies and Programs in the USA
http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/laborday/upload/immigrant_risk.pdf
Foreign-born workers are likely to toil in high-risk occupations, work in the unregulated, “informal” economy and often fear reporting workplace injuries. Many are not aware of their legal rights to safety and health on the job and to workers’ compensation if they are injured…The share of foreign-born employment increased by 22 % in the US between 1996 and 2000, the share of fatal occupational injuries for this population increased by 43 %.Workopolis - New Canadian Advisor
http://transobj.workopolis.com/content/resource/newcanadians/index.html
This section is intended to help people who want to be independent class immigrants. These are skilled workers, who are chosen for their ability to fit into Canadian society. Learn about the selection process and about how to fit into the Canadian labour market.Labour Market Attachment Needs of Immigrants in Nova Scotia
http://www.misa.ns.ca/WhatsNew/LabourMarketStudy.htm
To address newcomers’ needs, smaller provinces like Nova Scotia need a system that has the flexibility to adapt to individuals’ needs.Taxation Considerations
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20050614/documents/I-complete.pdf
It has become untenable for those with the very least income to continue to help subsidize programs for those better off (e.g. subsidies/grants to businesses; energy retrofitting programs for homeowners; generous pensions for MPs; education saving funds utilized disproportionately by higher income families; etc.)... Ensure incomes below the poverty line (commonly understood as Low Income Cut Off) are not taxed. 2001Income Security and Productivity
http://www.cmha.ca/bins/content_page.asp?cid=5-916-919-935
Between 1984 and 1999, the wealth of the top 20 % of families rose by 43 % while the wealth of the bottom 20 % fell by 51 %. Canadian society has become increasingly polarized on the basis of income... Sharp declines in the value of minimum wages since 1976 and the trend towards part-time, precarious and temporary work instead of well-paid, secure jobs… One result of the diminishing minimum wage is that no minimum wage worker could even reach the 1998 poverty line by working 40 hours a week… Greater numbers of middle class Canadians are being exposed to economic insecurity. 45 % of adult employees between the ages of 25-59 are employed in flexible forms of work (less than full-time tenured workers)... 53 % of the adult workforce is in vulnerable employment situations because they lack employment stability and/or market sufficiency. Frequent lay-offs or irregular work without benefits are becoming more prevalent.Welfare income levels hit new lows: study
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060824.wwelfare0824/
BNStory/National/
It's not just finances, people who are receiving welfare are excluded from education, health care, from job opportunities, and all kinds of activities… The amount of money Canadians on welfare received in 2005 is at its lowest point in 19 years, according to the study of the National Council of Welfare, a citizen's advisory group to the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development. It suggests that of the 1.7-million Canadians, half a million of whom are children, currently receiving welfare in the country, most are living far below the poverty line…The income adjusted for inflation of a single person living on welfare in Alberta has dropped by 50 % since 1986 to $4,824 a year. In New Brunswick the average is $3,427 for a single person or 19 % of what is considered the threshold for the poverty line.Professional Compensation
http://www.canadaimmigrants.com/Compensation.asp
The Canadian government persists in giving away millions of dollars to bureaucrats, subcontractors, and “non-profit” agencies that have only done one thing right; being government-friendly beneficiaries of this lavish cronyism... Who pays for this lack of vision? The ones who bring billions of dollars, not only in cash, but also in skills to Canada; independent/skilled immigrants... Aren’t skilled / independent immigrants entitled to be retroactively compensated for this mismanagement? For example, if you (as a family doctor) had worked in your field of expertise, you would have made x amount of money every year, wouldn’t you? But because you were working as a taxi driver, caregiver, or something similar, your income was significatively lower. From Canada Immigrant Job Issues.Is Work Working? Work Laws that Do a Better Job
http://www.lcc.gc.ca/research_project/er/tvw/dp/conclusion-en.asp
Over the past three decades, Canadian businesses have experienced a host of competitive pressures that have necessitated cost reductions in all aspects of their businesses. Labour costs have been no exception. As a result, there has been increasing pressure to deregulate the labour market to provide employers with more latitude to reduce labour costs. However, in reality those costs have not been reduced; they have merely been shifted onto workers... Similarly, when minimum wage is not raised as the cost of living increases, the costs are shifted from employers to the individual workers... If human flourishing and long-term productivity are the ultimate goals of labour market policy and regulation, more attention will need to be paid to the costs to families, communities and other social institutions of the increased burdens currently borne by vulnerable workers. Law Commission of Canada, 2004Immigrant Earnings Profiles in the Presence of Human Capital Investment: Measuring Cohort and Macro Effects
http://gsbwww.uchicago.edu/labor/green03.pdf
Measuring cohort “quality”: Focusing on present values rather than entry earnings, we find that the 1990s cohorts were not dramatically worse than the 1980s cohorts…Shifts in the country composition of the inflow also play a large role in cross-cohort movements, with these shifts plus the general new entrant effects accounting for over 90% of the1980s decline. Zero returns to foreign experience in terms of entry earnings for immigrants from non-English speaking, non-European immigrants play an important role in this. This points to potential policy concerns over transferability of experience acquired human capital, though steeper post-arrival earnings profiles for these workers suggest that some transfer may occur with a delay... But the fact that general new entrant effects account for so much of the immigrant earnings patterns indicates that part of our concern over immigrant earnings should be redirected to the broader issue of difficulties facing all new entrants.Voices: Are they good jobs?
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/
Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1149847314090&call_pageid=968332188492
With the unemployment rate at a 32-year low, we asked you whether you are optimistic about the economic outlook. Here's what you had to say. Unemployment may be low but most jobs are being offered now are contracts, which offer no benefits, holidays or stability... It's very manipulative to use a low unemployment rate as a symbol of increased secure employment... The types of jobs that are being created are not necessarily full-time or well-paying. The Star, June 9, 2006
Governments Failing Newcomers: Highly Skilled Immigrants Being Forced to Use Food Banks
http://www.dailybread.ca/media/publications/Report%20on%20immigrant%20
use%20of%20food%20banks.pdf
91% of immigrants among Food Bank users are not working in the areas they were trained in or have job experience in (2005 Survey, Ontario).
60% of immigrants have university level education or a trade certification compared to only 36% of Canadian-born clients. 8% of immigrants have a Master’s degree or higher compared to 1% of the Canadian-born population. Top 5 Fields of Study: Nursing/ Healthcare Professional: 17.3%; Engineering: 9.8%; Business Administration: 9.3%; Computers / IT: 7.8%; Education: 4.6%. In terms of place of origin, immigrants come from all over the world. Eastern Europe, South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Southeast Asia are all represented amongst the top ten places newcomers using food banks were born. Even the United States is represented on this list. The majority of these immigrants survive on income which is approximately half of the Low Income Cut-Off.Poverty and Exclusion: Precarious Jobs and Social Exclusion
http://policyresearch.gc.ca/page.asp?pagenm=v7n2_art_07
Precarious jobs provide very limited, if any, access to progressive career ladders and workplace training. Dead-end jobs held by many women, recent immigrants, Aboriginal people, and persons with disabilities do not help people develop the skills and capacities they need to access better jobs, embark on lifetime career ladders, and better handle labour market risks, such as permanent layoffs due to economic change... Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands all had good records of job creation and economic growth in the 1990s, with a very low incidence of low-wage work compared to North America. This suggests a different model is possible, even if it is not necessarily easy to create... The relative success of these countries in creating higher-quality jobs and high levels of employment has been accomplished by: regulating the labour market to create a wage floor and a low level of wage inequality; keeping the non-wage costs of employment low by providing social and economic security primarily through public programs financed from general taxation; providing significant investment in active labour market policies to upgrade the skills of those at greatest risk of engaging in precarious employment; and building a distinct kind of post-industrial service economy, based on a large non-market sector and high productivity private services.Accreditation blockage - Minority youth
http://www.ohrc.on.ca/english/consultations/race-policy-dialogue-paper-js.shtml
Accreditation blockage imposed on foreign-trained professionals has another deleterious effect on minority youth whose parents were trained abroad: “it sets limits to the likelihood that minority professionals could serve as effective role models for succeeding generations”.Changes in Poverty Status and Developmental Behaviours: A Comparison of Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Children in Canada
http://www11.sdc.gc.ca/en/cs/sp/sdc/pkrf/publications/research/
2000-001332/page10.shtml
Immigrant children are the fastest growing component of Canada's child population.. .Immigrant families were more likely to experience poverty but poor immigrant families were less likely to access, and derive benefits from the social welfare system than non-immigrant families... Probably because poor immigrant children suffered a higher extent of material deprivation, they responded to increases in family income more directly and positively than poor non-immigrant children in terms of the improvement in developmental behaviours... Persistently poor immigrant families were far less likely to depend on welfare than their non-immigrant counterparts. Immigrant families in persistent poverty tended to have lower average income than their non-immigrant counterparts... Larger decreases in absolute income were associated with higher levels of conduct disorder, indirect aggression, and to a lesser degree, hyperactivity. For newly poor non-immigrant families, this conditional effect presented only for conduct disorder.National Policies and Legal Rights: From the Disability and Multicultural Perspectives
http://www.tacdca.com/ConferenceAnnouncement2004.htm
The fact that a very large percentage of the disabled ethnocultural community is unemployed and lives on social assistance warrants attention and scrutiny. Indeed, even the unconscionably high rate of unemployment within the mainstream disability community pales in comparison with the situation of the disabled ethnocultural community: When in Manitoba, for instance, the rate of unemployment in the general population is 5%, the unemployment rate is about 45% for the mainstream disability community, but as much as 90%, approximately, for the ethnocultural disability community… African Canadian Disability Community Association (INC)Immigrants and Canadianborn: A Consumption Behaviour Assessment.
http://canada.metropolis.net/research-policy/litreviews/bjot_bib/bjot_bib-04a.html
This study undertakes an examination of the demandside impact of immigration on the Canadian economy. Consumption patterns, both aggregate and disaggregate, are estimated using the data base provided by the 1986 Statistics Canada Survey of Family Expenditures. Aggregate results indicate that immigrant consumption patterns approach those of the Canadianborn over time while the disaggregate analysis provides several exceptions to this finding. While immigrants tend to behave like their Canadianborn counterparts in areas of shelter, household operation and health care, significant differences are observed in the majority of other categories analyzed. AbstractPoverty breeds isolation and exclusion
http://www.fcm.ca/english/documents/falling.pdf
Many poor people, families, children and seniors are isolated by lack of transportation, user fees or other eligibility and access issues. Low-income groups were frequently described as not having a political voice and being left out.Women at particular risk of poverty
http://www.criaw-icref.ca/factSheets/Poverty_fact_sheet_e.htm
Thirty-seven percent of visible minority women are low income, compared with 19% of all women. The average annual income for a visible minority woman in Canada is $16,621, almost $3000 less than the average for other women ($19,495) and almost $7,000 less than that of visible minority men ($23,635). Education does not reduce the income gap between immigrant women and Canadian-born women. Recent immigrant women between the ages of 25-44 who have a university degree and who worked full-year, full-time earn $14,000 less than Canadian-born women.Environmental Threats to Children - Understanding the Risks, Enabling Prevention
http://www.toronto.ca/health/hphe/pdf/tr_environmental_threats_all.pdf
Data to clarify the relationships among poverty, ethnicity, exposure, susceptibility and health disparities among children across Toronto are clearly lacking. The poverty-related risk factors relevant to children in urban environments include the age, physical condition and location of their homes and neighbourhoods, and the occupation and household practices of parents (or landlords). Indoors, rental units and low-income units, particularly apartments and those with frequent turnover in occupancy, can become more readily afflicted with cockroach infestations and therefore, more frequently sprayed with pesticides. Toronto Public Health, 2005Promotion of healthy eating: Among new immigrant women in Ontario
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3961/is_200210/ai_n9092473
Before migration, many immigrants, especially those from non-Western countries, consume a healthy diet, but this changes on migration… Immigrants, especially refugees, are disproportionately poorer than the general population, making poverty a confounder of any relationship between immigration and health.Poverty by Postal Code
http://www.unitedwaytoronto.com/who_we_help/social_issues_uw_reports.html
“In the past two decades, Toronto has changed dramatically and not all for the good. The income gap is widening and neighbourhood poverty has intensified. As the numbers of high poverty neighbourhoods increase – especially in the inner suburbs – everyone’s quality of life suffers”.The Canadian Fact Book on Poverty 2000 – Working Definitions of Poverty
http://www.ccsd.ca/pubs/2000/fbpov00/chapter2.pdf
Various prevailing definitions of poverty, and their shortcomings… Because poverty is based on the deficit of income compared to essential expenditures, disagreements over how poverty should be defined can be reduced conceptually to two questions. First, how is income defined? Second, what are legitimate necessary expenditures – and necessary for what purpose? Of course, the answers to these questions depend on place, time, and household circumstances.Canada s Creeping Economic Apartheid
http://www.socialjustice.org/pdfs/economicapartheid.pdf
The economic segregation and social marginalisation of racialised groups calls attention to the growing racialisation of the gap between the rich and poor, which is proceeding with minimal public and policy attention, despite the dire implications for Canadian society.Canadian Council on Social Development
http://www.ccsd.ca/facts.html
Poverty statistics.PovNet
http://www.povnet.org/immigrants.htm
Online resource for the anti-poverty communityThe Changing Face of Canada: A Profile of the Working Poor in Canada
http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/11F0024MIE/pdf/abstracts/
series2/2-a.fortin.pdf
Descriptive profile of the working poor in Canada based on Statistics Canada’s Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics… Overview of the policies and programs that support the working poor in North America and in Europe – Summary, Statistics Canada’s Economic Conference, 2004The Face of Poverty in Canada: An Overview
http://www.napo-onap.ca/en/issues/face%20%20of%20poverty.pdf
Aboriginal women – average income is $13,300 compared to $18,200 for Aboriginal men and $19,350 for non-Aboriginal women. Visible minority women – 37% are poor (compared to 19% for all women). Statistics Canada pre-tax LICO in 2000 was $ 18, 731 for a single person in a large city. To reach this poverty line a person must work 35 hours at $10/hour... 231, 000 children with at least one parent who is a recent immigrant live in poverty... Immigrants in Canada less than five years have a poverty rate of 35.8% (year 2000); in Canada 6-10 years = poverty rate of 28.3% (up from 18.7% in 1980); in Canada 11-15 years = poverty rate of 22.7% (up from 14.4% in 1980); in Canada more than 20 years = poverty rate of 19.1% (up from 14.7% in 1980).The wealth position of immigrant families in Canada
http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/11F0019MIE/11F0019MIE2003197.pdf
Recent immigrants have lower wealth than comparable Canadian-born families, and immigrants who arrived before 1976 have higher wealth. While immigrants who arrived in Canada between 1976 and 1985 are widely believed to initially have had more of an earnings disadvantage than their predecessors with respect to the Canadian-born, the wealth of this cohort is not significantly different from that of comparable Canadian-born families. Statistics CanadaDecline in homeownership rates among immigrant families 1981 to 2001
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/050203/d050203a.htm
In 1981, homeownership rates among working-age immigrant families in Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver were all higher than those among their Canadian-born counterparts. In Montréal, 52% of immigrant families owned their homes compared with 46% of Canadian-born families. In Toronto, 65% of immigrant families did so as opposed to 55% of Canadian-born. And in Vancouver, 70% of immigrant families owned their homes compared with only 58% of Canadian-born.
By 2001, the situation had reversed in both Montréal and Toronto. In Montréal only 42% of immigrant families owned their homes, while the proportion among Canadian-born had increased to 54%. In Toronto, the proportion among immigrant families had declined to 61%, while the proportion for Canadian-born had risen to 64%. Only in Vancouver did the status quo remain. About 64% of immigrant families owned their own home in 2001, still ahead of the proportion of 55% among Canadian-born families. The Daily, 2005The Current State of Canadian Family Finances
http://www.vifamily.ca/library/cft/state03.html
From a long-term perspective (from 1989 to 2003), the biggest spending increase (in the 50% range), was for the major expenditure category that includes recreation, entertainment, education and cultural spending. Some of this may have been "frivolous" but much of it reflects the rising costs of tuition fees, sports fees, movie tickets, the boom in electronic games, etc.
Real spending on medical and health services also jumped by about 50% from 1989 to 2003. This clearly reflects the lower level of coverage for some medical services, reductions in drug plan coverage, fewer eye care programs and rising public and private health care premiums.
At the other end of the spectrum, real expenditures on food, beverages and tobacco actually dropped by 2.8% between 1989 and 2003 while clothing and footwear expenditures increased by only 3.1%. - 2003 Report.Imagining a future of inclusion
http://www.ccsd.ca/pr/2003/budget03/prebudget03.pdf
Not only did recent immigrants of a decade ago make less than their counterparts of earlier generations, but they kept losing ground. After 10 years, they’re still well behind other Canadians and behind where previous generations of immigrants were after living here a decade. And their children are more likely to be living in poverty. The 2001 Census figures show that the low-income rate among immigrants rose between 1980 and 2000 from 17.0% to 20.2%. For recent immigrants, the rise was even more dramatic: from 24.6% in 1980 to 35.8% in 2000 – and 39% of children of recent immigrants were living in poverty.
There is mounting consensus in Canada that our minimum wage should be raised to a living wage of $10.00 an hour, (an amount soon to be offered in Britain under their new minimum wage program). This would allow a worker living in one of our large cities at a rate of37.5 hours per week, to earn $19,500 per year or $239 above the poverty line… Over the past decade the percentage of unemployed Canadians covered by EI has fallen from 57% in 1993 to 39% in 2002. Of the total $15.2 billion in premiums paid in 2000, $8 billion went into general revenues and only $7 billion to the unemployed. The government has now accumulated a surplus of $45 billion which has been spent in general revenues.Submission of the National Anti-Poverty Organization to the Standing Committee on Finance: Pre-Budget Hearings 2005
http://www.napo-onap.ca/en/issues/NAPO%202005%20finance%20
committee%20submission.pdf
The last several years have seen an increase in precarious, part time, temporary low-wage jobs in Canada. One in seven adult full time workers have held their job for less than one year. More than 11% of all workers are in explicitly temporary jobs up from 7% in the 1980’s.7 Canada now has a low wage economy with 25.3% of workers in low-wage jobs.8 In 2003, 57% of youth earned less than $10 an hour, 16.2% of women aged 25 to 54 and 11.2% of men aged 25- 54 earned less than $10 an hour. All of these changes leave people more vulnerable to poverty.
There has been a significant increases in the poverty rate of immigrant families, even those who have been in Canada for 10 years or more. From 1980 to 2000 the rate of poverty for this group rose by 8.3%. This trend holds true for all immigrant groups (including those who have been in Canada more than 20 years)... Children from higher-income families are twice as likely to attend university as those from lower-income families.Measuring Poverty in Canada
http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/shared/readmore.asp?sNav=pb&id=216
While most estimates of the trend in poverty focus on the past 15 or 20 years, Measuring Poverty in Canada gives an estimate of the rate of poverty in Canada from 1951 to 1996, the most recent data available. This longer term trend reveals that the rate of poverty fell solidly from about 40% in 1951 to about 8% in 1981 where it has more or less stayed. While the decline in the early period is impressive (and is a testament to strong economic growth and a buoyant labour market), the more recent (apparent) stagnation of the rate is a concern... Measuring Poverty in Canada provides an estimate of "consumption" poverty, i.e., the percentage of Canadians whose consumption is below the basic-needs poverty line. While the rate of consumption poverty is somewhat lower than that of income poverty, the trend is quite similar; that is, a sharp decline before 1980 and relative stability afterwards.Income Redistribution in Canada: Minimum Wages versus Other Policy Instruments
http://www.econ.ubc.ca/nfortin/irpp1.pdf
The fundamental goal of minimum wage legislation is to guarantee a "decent" or "fair" wage for all workers in the covered sectors... the minimum wage may be an effective tool to reduce wage inequality... The first goal of the paper is to investigate the contribution of minimum wages to the reduction of inequality in Canada... The second goal of the paper is to compare the redistributional impact of minimum wages to that of other policy instruments. We do so by studying the impact of minimum wages on the distribution of family income (based on income-to-needs ratios) relative to other redistributive programs...The Pre-Conditions for a Constructive Social Inclusion Agenda
http://www.ccsd.ca/events/inclusion/papers/voyer.pdf
As in all developed countries, Canada's policies for tackling poverty and exclusion consist of a mix of taxes, transfers and services aimed at the population as a whole, supported by special measures aimed at those who are unemployed, or who are unable or not expected to work. Governments at all levels play an important role. Taken as a whole, and compared with many other countries, the Canadian system works well... Throughout the OECD world, there has been much new thinking about policies that could address poverty and exclusion in a more effective manner... Increasingly, the problem has been formulated not only as the lack of income at a single point in time in a person's life, but rather in terms of persistent lack of income and other resources that are needed to enable people to participate in mainstream economy and society.Policy Responses For Groups At Risk of Long-Term Poverty
http://www.queensu.ca/sps/queens_international_institute_on_social_policy/
qiisp_2004/Session_3.williams.pdf
Current poverty policy is overwhelmingly defined as an employment and income issue, and insufficiently attentive to the social and cultural dimensions… It’s not low-income that causes poverty, but rather poverty that causes low-income. In my view, it also contributes to alienation, depression, and a host of other social problems... We need to make room for an approach that understands poverty in terms of social and cultural as well as economic exclusion.. It will lead us to understand that persistent poverty is as much a consequence of exclusion as its cause.Social Inclusion and Community Economic Development
www.ccednet-rcdec.ca/en/docs/pccdln/PCCDLN_20040803_LitReview-L.pdf
The impacts of exclusion are felt by those who are excluded, predominantly the poor.
The more profound the exclusion - that is the more ways in which an individual or community experiences multiple exclusions - the more devastating the impactsLabour Market Policies for Social Inclusion
http://www.ccsd.ca/events/inclusion/papers/jackson/jackson_files/v3_document.htm
Living Wages: Creating A Wage Floor - Canada is a Low Wage Country (Especially for Women) Many Other Advanced Industrial Countries Have Higher Wage Floors/ More Compressed Distributions of Earnings Low Pay (<2/3 National Median) = 25% in Canada vs. 5% in Sweden, 11% in NetherlandsGlobal Trends and Their Effects on the Environment: Globalization and the unequal distribution of wealth
http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-64507-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
The difference between the real incomes of the poorest and richest people in the world is huge. Annual per-capita income in the 16 richest countries varies from $10,420 to $21,250, averaging about $15,000. At the other extreme, the annual per-capita income in the 25 poorest countries ranges from $80 (Mozambique) to $350 (India), with an average of about $220. Five days’ accumulation of per-capita income in the 16 richest countries (total population, 725 million) is equal to 1 year of per-capita income in the 25 poorest (total population, 1, 575 million)... The hourly wage of a well-paid professional in a developed country is often over $100; this can represent 2 or even 3 years’ earnings for someone in the poorest sectors of the poorest countries.How do we measure poverty?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/economy/poverty-line.html
Between 1984 and 1999, the average net wealth of the top 20 % of couples with children increased by 43 %. For families at the bottom of the income scale, net wealth fell by more than 51 %. As for measuring poverty, Statistics Canada says there is no internationally, or even nationally, accepted formula or definition of who is poor... Statistics Canada finds itself in a no-win situation. If they do come up with a way of calculating the number of poor people in Canada –for example, using after-tax incomes – the number will undoubtedly be lower than the number calculated by the LICO. Anyone who uses the new number would be accused of using mathematical trickery to "reduce" the number of poor people in Canada. Another way to measure poverty is in absolute terms: how many people make less than what is needed to survive or lead a decent life. Human Resources and Development Canada is developing such a measurement, called the Market Basket Measure.