Sorting or Shaping? The Gendered Economic Outcomes of Immigration Policy in Canada

Abstract

Using a growth model analysis of Canada's Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC), we establish a significant relationship between application status — i.e., the distinction in immigration policy between primary and secondary migrants — and individual wages. This relationship is associated with an earnings disadvantage for secondary migrants, who are disproportionately female. The disadvantage persists over time, even when individual human capital and personal characteristics, household context, and pre‐existing differences in the relative employability of spouses are taken into account. We outline some possible explanations for this effect, as well as implications for immigration policy makers.

The Rise and Stall of Canada's Gender‐Equity Revolution

“…Even more recently, from 2012 to the present, the female labor force participation rate has been falling, in part because immigrant women are having trouble entering the labor force (DePratto 2014). This is further evidence of stalling, and of the unevenness in gender equity (see also Elrick and Lightman 2014;Fuller and Stecy-Hildebrandt 2014). Furthermore, while part-time employment helped fuel the early growth of women's participation in the labor force, since the mid-1970s the percentage of women working part-time has remained constant at about 25 percent.…”

From statistical category to social category: organized politics and official categorizations of ‘persons with a migration background’ in Germany

“…The classification principles contained in ethnic and migration-paradigm statistical categories are undoubtedly important, but they need to be considered alongside the classifications contained in immigration and integration policies. These policies sort immigrants into categories such as permanent/temporary, economic/humanitarian and high-skilled/ low-skilled long before they are enumerated by statistical agencies, and the status accorded under these categories has material effects on processes of inclusion and exclusion (Elrick and Lightman 2014;Goldring and Landolt 2011;Söhn 2013). Observed material effects associated with being in an immigration category (e.g.…”

Family Migration and Integration: <i>The Need for a New Research Agenda</i>

“…The third stream of literature consists of quantitative studies of marriage patterns and/or labour market participation among family migrants (e.g. Banerjee & Phan 2014;Bevelander 2011;Elrick & Lightman 2014;Mohn 2016).…”

“…There are two main streams of literature about the integration of family migrants: first, studies of labour market integration of family migrants (see, e.g. Bratsberg, Raaum & Roed 2017;Chiswick, Lee & Miller 2006;Elrick & Lightman 2014;Oliver 2013) and, second, research that focuses the integration effects of intra-ethnic marriages (Jakobsen & Liversage 2017;Mohn 2016). The first stream of literature focuses on the migrants' integration into the labour market, sometimes also including data on educational level, language acquisition and the use of social insurance.…”