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Socio-economic situation
Decline in homeownership rates among immigrant families (1981-2001)
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/050203/d050203a.htm
In 1981, homeownership rates among working-age immigrant families in Canada's three largest metropolitan centres (Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver) exceeded those of their Canadian-born counterparts. By 2001, homeownership rates among immigrant families in which the main wage-earner was 25 to 54 had declined sharply. In fact, rates had actually fallen below those of Canadian-born families in Montréal and Toronto. Some of the decline can be linked to socio-economic and demographic factors, such as age, income, level of education, family type and the dramatic decline in the success of immigrants in Canada's labour market. However, using census data, the study found that these factors explained only about one-third of the decline. Future papers in this series will explore other potential factors, such as changes in homeownership-relevant group characteristics (wealth, participation in occupations that might facilitate homeownership, etc.), shifts in the source countries and visible minority statuses of immigrants to Canada, and the emergence of ethnic enclaves. Statistics Canada, The DailyHousing: An income issue
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/75-001-XIE/00602/hi-fs_200206_01_a.html
In 2000, the median Canadian household spent 21% of after-tax income on housing. Owners without a mortgage spent 11%, owners with a mortgage spent 25%, and tenants spent 28%. Just over one in five tenants spent 40% or more.Housing New Canadians
http://www.hnc.utoronto.ca/biblio.htm
Selected Bibliographies: Housing and Immigrants; Housing Related Discrimination in CanadaThe Housing Situation of Immigrants and Refugees in Canada
http://www.confmanager.com/main.cfm?cid=243&nid=4562
Obtaining adequate and affordable housing represents an important first step in settlement and integration. This workshop will focus on the variegated housing experiences of newcomers to Canada. 2006Immigrants, Housing and the Rental Affordability Problem
http://www.hnc.utoronto.ca/publish/index.htm
The rental experiences of three recently arrived immigrant groups – Jamaicans, Poles and Somalis – are evaluated using a housing career strategy. The paper focuses on changes through the housing career and between the three groups for a variety of characteristics related to affordability. The results show that the Poles experienced the least affordability problems and the Somalis had the greatest difficulty affording adequate accommodation.Immigration/Diversity and Homelessness - Reality, Trends and Risks
http://www.homelessness.gc.ca/research/toolkit/docs/immigrationhomelessness_e.pdf
Immigrants and refugees turn to other resources to cope with discrimination and systemic barriers that they come up against in their search for housing. They fall back on temporary solutions such as short-term rentals in illegal or unsafe rooming houses and insecure tenure or living arrangements, or ethnic, religious or family networks. It is difficult to identify, much less assess, the magnitude of this “hidden or concealed homelessness” because of its very nature and the informality and impenetrability of the support networks. Some immigrants alternate between these informal networks and homeless shelter infrastructures. 20% of immigrant households are struggling with core housing needs (as compared to 17% for non-immigrants). The rate rises to 39% for recent immigrants.The socio-economic progress of the children of immigrants
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/051025/d051025b.htm
Low earnings in childhood on average does not imply low earnings in adulthood… On average, only about one-fifth to one-quarter of any earnings advantage or disadvantage an immigrant father may have is passed on to his son, according to the study, which used data from the 2001 and 1981 censuses… This is no different than among the Canadian population at large, and it is lower by half than in the United States… Notwithstanding the financial challenges that past groups of immigrants have faced, their children have on average done well… Second-generation children in Canada are more educated and earn more on average than Canadians of a similar age whose parents were both born in Canada, according to the study… Previous studies have shown that in Canada, recent groups of immigrants have earned as much as 50% to 60% less than their Canadian-born counterparts upon arrival in the country. The consequence of this is that low-income rates among recent immigrants are high, and getting higher. Statistics Canada, The DailyReport Card on Child Poverty In Toronto- Ethno-Racial Inequality
http://www.campaign2000.ca/rc/pdf/TorontoRC.pdf
Immigrants make up one half (48%) of the city’s population. Canada’s child poverty problem hits Toronto’s diverse multicultural community hard. While one child in three in Toronto is poor there is considerable variance in the rates of child poverty among the many ethno-racial communities that make up Toronto. For many ethno-racial groups the child poverty rate is extremely high -- as high as 60% to 90%. One factor is when people immigrated to Canada. Twenty-eight per cent of the city’s immigrant population arrived in Canada ten years ago or less (1986-96) and 12% arrived within the past two years (1994-96)… In Canadian cities non-permanent residents, such as refugee claimants, have the highest poverty rate (62%). The poverty rate is 52% among those who immigrated between 1991 and 1996, and is 35% among those who immigrated between 1986 and 1990. Among persons who immigrated before 1986 the poverty rate is 20%... Many groups of non-European ancestry are relatively younger adults who are more likely to be raising children. They make-up one-third (37%) of all Toronto families, but make up one-half (49%) of the city’s families with children.Immigrants and Cities: Does neighborhood matter?
http://im.metropolis.net/research-policy/research_content/doc/IMMIGRANTS.pdf
Montréal is a relatively good example of the harmonious management of differences in multicultural context. But its integration model based on segmentation, which historically has promoted the relatively smooth integration of immigrants, is increasingly called into question by political discourse based on republican-style ideals of citizenship, very different for the model historically forged by Montrealers. The harder positions of groups representing the host society and those emanating from ethnic groups lead us to foresee a less "comfortable" situation. These differences are experienced especially at the local, or even micro-local, scale. The multiple arenas of urban life will become crucial in the working out of these differences.
The Housing and Socio-Economic Conditions of Immigrant Families
http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/publications/en/rh-pr/socio/socio033.pdf
Recent immigrants have higher mobility rates, higher unemployment rates and lower incomes than long-term immigrants: Recent immigrants are three times as likely to have low incomes as long-term immigrants. While only 42.8 percent of recent immigrant families own their housing, over the long term a very high proportion of them (80.9%) become owners. Only 17.6 percent of all immigrant family owners pay 30 percent or more of their income for shelter, but this figure rises to 40.7 percent for recent immigrants. Renter immigrant families are almost twice as likely as their owner counterparts to spend 30 percent or more of their income for shelter. Almost one-third spend more than the norm, and 70 percent of these are low income households. Again, recent immigrants face the most difficult circumstances: 41.6 percent spend 30 percent or more of their income for shelter compared to 28.6 and 22.1 percent of long-term immigrant and non-immigrant households. Just over 80 percent of those recent immigrant renter households have low incomes, compared to 63.4 percent of families with long-term immigrant maintainers and 56.2 percent of those led by non-immigrant maintainers. Lone-parent immigrant renters are the most likely to be in core need. Of the 16,535 recent immigrant lone parents in need, 14,640 are renters living on an average annual income of less than $13,000. Census Profile, 1991.Earnings of Immigrant Men in Canada: The Roles of Labour Market Entry
Effects and Returns to Foreign Experience (2002)
http://www.cic.gc.ca/English/research/papers/earnings/earnings-toc.html
Introduction, Data and Basic Patterns, Estimation Frameworks, Estimation Results, Cohort Based Comparison Specification, The Native Born, High School Or Less Educated Immigrants, Post Secondary Educated Immigrants, University Educated Immigrants, Investigating The Declining Returns To Foreign Experience, InterpretationDecision Time for Canada: Let's Make Poverty History - 2005 Report Card on Child Poverty in Canada
http://www.campaign2000.ca/rc/rc05/05NationalReportCard.pdf
Campaign 2000 is a non-partisan, cross-Canada network of over 90 national, provincial and community partner organizations committed to working together to end child and family poverty in Canada. What are the risks to Canadian society of a growing chasm between the "haves" and the "have-nots"? Many of the families struggling at the lowest rungs of the income ladder are lone mothers, recent immigrants, visible minorities, Aboriginal peoples and people with disabilities. Increasing inequality erodes social cohesion, increases insecurity, and reduces public health. Studies of industrialized countries show that as income inequality increases, the social environment deteriorates, trust decreases, involvement in community life declines, population health deteriorates, and hostility and violence increase. Children who experience long periods of poverty between birth and age 5 or in their early teenage years are more likely to commit crime.Is Canada a Country of Exception for Immigrants and their Families?
http://im.metropolis.net/research-policy/research_content/doc/Helly%20Canada%20country.pdf
Immigrants, half of whom are chosen based on their level of education, suffered a reduction in their economic performance, a loss of their occupational status, and a higher level of unemployment than native born Canadians. The highest levels were among the Arabs and Asians in first place, followed by Blacks and Latin Americans. In 2000, men who had been in the country for a year, were earning 63.1 cents for every dollar paid to native born workers, which proportion has been decreasing over the last twenty years (63.4 cents in 1990; 71.6 cents in 1980). Women were earning 60.5 cents compared to 70.5 cents in 1990. More disturbing still was the fact that immigrants who had been in the country for at least ten years, which was historically the length of time needed to catch up to the average wage, were losing ground… 'Visible minorities' are subject to a wage differential of 8% compared to 'Europeans'… The frequency of racial and cultural victimization in the labour market is more than in any other sphere. Non-European physical features, the inability to speak an official language or an accent are frequent causes of discrimination in Canada… Muslims are more particularly affected by religious ostracism… Compared to the treatment and performance of immigrants in other Western countries, these shortcomings in terms of integration and breaches of fundamental rights may be considered minor. They nonetheless contradict Canada’s image as an exceptional country for immigrants and their families.
High-rise ghettos: In Toronto, visible minorities are pushed into `pockets of poverty
http://www.ontariotenants.ca/articles/2001/ts-01b03.phtml
Only the dirtiest, most run-down buildings along St. Dennis Dr. will let in poor people whose skin isn't white… This is racial discrimination Toronto-style - a city with a severe shortage of housing, landlords who are now free to raise rents to whatever the market will bear and a swelling population of non-white new immigrants who have to live somewhere while they struggle to get established.Housing and Immigration
http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/Library/horetore/upload/Compendium-of-Research-1998-1999.pdf
This study examines the relationships that exist between housing, neighbourhoods and social networks among visible minority immigrants living in metropolitan Toronto and Montreal… The study focuses on Jamaican, Central American and Vietnamese immigrants living in Toronto, and the same groups, substituting Haitians for Jamaican immigrants, in Montréal… Among the study's major findings are: significant suburbanization of some immigrant groups in a variety of styles of housing with important variations between the two cities; somewhat poorer housing conditions for immigrants relative to British/French Canadians and that these differences in status are not simply a function of time of arrival, household income or family type; generally strong levels of satisfaction with housing and neighbourhoods among individuals in both cities; and the critical roles played by friends and family in facilitating post-arrival settlement over a period of years. Compendium of Research, Canada Mortgage and Housing CorporationGroundGlass – Affordable Housing in Toronto
http://groundglass.ca/archives/2004/03/07/roaches.php
There must have been maybe 50 or 60 of them lying around in the kitchen on the counters and on the floor. There were still more dispersed around the living room, and quite a few live ones crawling around on the walls and ceiling.Promoting Asthma Control in Children - Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, 2004
http://www.rnao.org/bestpractices/PDF/BPG_ped_asthma.pdf
Inner-city children with asthma…. cockroach allergy and exposure to cockroach allergen…Housing Is Good Social Policy
http://www.tdrc.net/Report-04-12-HousingGood.pdf
Canada has one of the most private sector dominated housing systems and one of the smallest social housing sectors of any Western nation… The “rental population” has generally been one which has become a lower and lower income group… The rate of return is just too low in many projects to encourage property owners to invest in major improvements… With very little new supply and low vacancy rates landlords can rent to less risky households. This forces lower income households to pay higher rents, creating affordability problems or they are forced to accept poorer quality, more marginalized housing stock… In Toronto, families of two who use food banks spend an average of 67 percent of their income on rent; families of four spend 70 percent. These families had about $3.65 a day per person left to spend on clothing, food, transportation, personal care and other expenses… Incidence of core need rises to 42 percent for recent (since 1990) immigrants compared to 18 percent for pre-1976 immigrants. Core need is also much higher amongst visible minority groups from Africa, the Caribbean and parts of Latin America… Discrimination is often more common in the private rental market where most new arrivals have to access housing… Although social housing may not be entirely faultless when it comes to discriminatory practices... governments must recognize there is a need for stock outside the market place.Food Security and Nutrition: Too many families can’t afford the food they need to be healthy
http://www.spcw.mb.ca/uploaded/MarchPOV.pdf
Poverty among immigrants is another important consideration…Good nutrition is essential for a child's health and development, yet for families living in poverty, nutrition is often compromised due to the limited accessibility and affordability of healthy foods, or food insecurity… Many immigrants are unfamiliar with Western foods, such as frozen foods and may prefer fresh fruits and vegetables and freshly caught fish, all of which are more expensive…
The Impact of Poverty on the Health of Children and Youth
http://www.campaign2000.ca/res/Poverty_healthbackgrounder.pdf
Food security and hunger have increased for families and children living in poverty… Neighbourhood segregation is also occurring whereby families of low incomes, including racialized communities and recent immigrants, are being forced to live in highly concentrated impoverished areas that are often unsafe and highly contaminated with environmental hazards…
Access to quality recreational activities for children is limited… Preventative public health: health care professionals are reporting that children often already have cavities by the time they have started school due to the lack of preventative and continuing treatment available for families with low incomes… Immigrant families often have stronger family units and relations which offer invaluable informal supports and stability needed for a child's mental health. Yet it is also important to note that these informal support systems may be tested with longer/inconsistent working hours and intergenerational and cultural conflicts as a result of the immigration process.Canada Student Loans Program (CSLP) - Who gets student loans?
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/060324/d060324c.htm
Students of families who came to Canada since 1980 had a much higher CSLP take-up rate than others (45% versus 31%). The difference is partly attributable to lower parental income: 58% of these immigrant students had parental income below $40,000, compared with 29% of other students. The Daily, March 24, 2006Food Security, Health and the Immigrant Experience
http://ceris.metropolis.net/virtual%20library/health/welsh1.html
The project involved the creation of a web resource on food, health, and immigration; an exploration of changing food practices among francophone African, Somalian and Vietnamese immigrant populations in Toronto; and an exploration of the policies and services which would support the development of community programs, entrepreneurial initiatives, and household practices to enhance the food security, health and wellbeing of immigrant populations in Toronto.The Value of Work in Canada
http://www.fls-ntf.gc.ca/en/sub_fb_20.asp
The current minimum wage is a travesty. It is a wage that strips a worker of his/her dignity and shows the lack of respect for the value of honest work in our country at this time. Millions of Canadians are expected to exist upon the minimum wage or just slightly above it. However, the minimum wage may be allowing corporations to make considerable profit by saving upon labour costs... This collective (Collective of the Canadian Working Poor) has been unable to uncover educational or experiential distinctions between those acquiring work and those not acquiring work. It has become increasingly clear to us that education is not necessarily a tool to acquire a high salary or secure a job in Canada anymore. Educated Canadians with Canadian university degrees and college diplomas are working at low paying jobs all across this country. The issues that are causing educated Canadians to work at these mc jobs never make the news reports distributed by the mass media. I challenge this committee to secure the means to conduct a nation wide study of how many Canadian educated university and college graduates are working at jobs they are over qualified for and are generally dissatisfied with. The results of such a study would likely cause a dramatic shift in how we view the relationship between acquiring a job and possessing Canadian educational credentials in this country.Losing status in Canada: Gender and human capital discrimination of Chinese immigrants
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~agreve/Salaff-CERISMontreal-2004.pdf
Abstract: It is widely found that new immigrants lose status. Our comparison of 50 professional couples that immigrated from China to Canada compares human capital and institutional theories. We find human capital concepts account for most career advancement in China, but fail to explain the structural barriers to achievement affecting those in controlled professions, especially women, in Canada. In Canada, employers do not recognize our respondents' credentials, forcing them to requalify to attain professional level jobs. Structural concepts handle career deterioration, and in particular women's loss of social recognition of career paths.Ethnic Entrepreneurship, Social Networks, and the Enclave
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~agreve/Salaff-Greve-Wong-EFbook.pdf
“It is like a circle, using business to build social networks and using social networks to build up business.” It is said that immigrants turn to entrepreneurship when, frustrated in their goals to join the mainstream society, they can find a protected niche in the ethnic enclave. While many stress the social solidarity behind entrepreneurship, few have traced the process by which they turn to entrepreneurship. Our study of 100 new immigrants from the People’s Republic of China to Canada, (50 married couples) includes 15 that tried self-employment. We study how they draw on the enclave for social capital at different stages of building a business. We argue that the enclave resides in social networks, and we find that immigrants depend on social networks to establish businesses…Meeting the Challenge - A Synthesis of Papers on Canada’s Standard of Living
http://www.td.com/economics/standard/Synthesis.pdf
What Does Canada’s Standard of Living Mean?
The Magnitude of the Baillie Challenge
Looking for a Way Ahead: Visions for Raising Canada’s Standard of Living
Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Supply and Demand for Human Capital
Civilizing Capitalism: Social Policy and the Baillie Challenge
The Role of Cities
Facing the Government Budget Constraint
Canada in the World
Conclusion—The Missing ElementsCanadian Housing Observer
http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/cahoob/hoaf2004/hoaf_007.cfm
Many New Immigrants Face Housing Challenges. … Higher levels of housing need experienced by two groups of immigrant renters, those in Canada the shortest and longest periods of time, respectively. Despite much improvement over conditions in 1996, new immigrants were still encountering difficulties finding acceptable rental accommodation in their first five years in Canada. The data also suggest that long-term immigrant renters did not share in the housing improvements experienced by other renters between 1996 and 2001.Home ownership rates dropping for immigrants
http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/sociology/news.cfm?story=41017
Homeownership in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver: In 1981, proportionally more immigrant families of working age-25 to 54-owned their homes in these cities, surpassing the rates of Canadian-born families of the same age group. But by 2001, although the immigrant advantage still existed in Vancouver (64 % versus 55 %), it had disappeared in both Montreal and Toronto... Chinese and white immigrants from both Canada and the U.S. have the highest ownership rates of all groups, while black immigrants tend to have the lowest ownership rates. Filipinos and South Asians are situated between these extremes. Many of the differences can be linked to early attainment patterns, and that increases in homeownership propensities between groups over time is fairly consistent. The first few years seem to be important.