1. “Why Count?”: Are Ethnic Group and Visible Minority Group Useful in the Study of Immigrant Employment Success in Canada? Kristyn Frank University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

2. Research Problem Economic integration of immigrants into Canadian society is a concern to researchers, policy-makers and immigrants themselves Some question whether employment difficulties of immigrants is due to discriminatory hiring practices

3. Research Questions Is the employment success of immigrants to Canada statistically dependent on ethnic origin and/or visible minority group? If so, which groups have the greatest and least amounts of success? If so, does ethnic group or visible minority group have a stronger association with employment success?

4. Background John Porter (1965): The Vertical Mosaic Observed Canada as an ethnically stratified society Found that British and French ethnic groups were the most advantaged Demographic changes in immigrants shifted focus to stratification from ethnic to racial groupings Recent studies diverge: Some support Porter’s thesis (e.g.Nakhaie 1998; Lautard & Loree 1984) Some find Canadian society stratified more along racial lines (e.g. Herberg 1990; Lian and Matthews 1998)

5. Data Source Survey: Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada Statistics Canada and Citizenship and Immigration Canada Immigrants’ experiences adapting to Canadian society in their first 4 years Includes immigrants who arrived between Oct. 1, 2000 and Sept. 30, 2001

6. Methodology Scope: Individuals aged 25-64 Individuals who stated an intended occupation prior to immigrating Statistical Methods: Chi-square tests of independence Cramer’s V strength of association test Weighting: Proportional to sample size

7. Definition of Terms Ethnic Group: Respondent’s ethnic or cultural identity as it relates to themselves or their ancestors Visible Minority Group: “Visible minority” identified within Canadian society as “non-Caucasian”; based on physical attributes

8. Definition of Terms “Employment Success” measured by 2 dependent variables: Major Group Job Match: Whether an immigrant obtained a job since immigrating that matches his/her intended occupation at the major group level of the 2001 National Occupational Classification (e.g. “Clerical Occupations”; “Professional Occupations in Health”) Skill Level Match: Whether the skill level of any job that an immigrant has held since arrival matches the skill level required for his/her intended occupation (4 skill levels-2001 NOC)

9. Findings:Employment Success of Immigrants to Canada (Major Group)

10. Findings:Employment Success of Immigrants to Canada (Skill Level)

11. Findings: Chi-Square Tests of Independence - Major Group Statistical Information Ethnic Group and Major Group Job Match Visible Minority Group and Major Group Job Match Pearson Chi- Square Value (Χ 2 ) 41.175 (a)54.369 (a) Degrees of Freedom 78 Asymp. Significance (2- sided) <.001 Cramer’s V Value.118 (approx. sig. <.001).134 (approx. sig. <.001) N of Valid Cases2,9673,009 a = 0 cells have expected count less than 5.

12. Findings: Major Group Job Match by Ethnic Group

13. Findings: Major Group Job Match by Visible Minority Group

14. Findings:Chi-Square Tests of Independence – Skill Level Statistical Information Ethnic Group and Skill Level Match Visible Minority Group and Skill Level Match Pearson Chi- Square Value (Χ 2 ) 63.502 (a)60.168 (a) Degrees of Freedom 78 Asymp. Significance (2- sided) <.001 Cramer’s V Value.151 (approx. sig. <.001).146 (approx. sig. <.001) N of Valid Cases2,7792,818 a = 0 cells have expected count less than 5.

15. Findings: Skill Level Match by Ethnic Group

16. Findings:Skill Level Match by Visible Minority Group

17. Conclusions Both ethnic group and visible minority group are relevant to the study of immigrant employment success Strength of association tests show visible minority group has a slightly stronger relationship with major group job match than ethnic group does Ethnic group and visible minority group have stronger associations with skill level match than with major group job match The French and British/Northern European ethnic groups have more employment success than other groups The South Asian and Arab ethnic groups have the least employment success than other groups

18. Conclusions Among visible minority groups, Whites have a high degree of success in obtaining a major group match and skill level match The Japanese and Korean visible minority group, as well as the Arab and West Asian group have low employment success compared to others

19. Discussion Studies that include ethnic group and/or visible minority group may have problems with the concepts overlapping Respondents may confuse the two concepts Researchers have to deal with similar labels between the two variables (e.g. “Arab”) When using some data sets, some categories have to be collapsed, further complicating the distinctions between groups

20. Discussion Policy Implications of focusing on Ethnic Group vs. Visible Minority Group Different policy concerns and recommendations based on which concept is studied

21. Thank You! Merci!