The employment effects of immigration: a balance sheet approach

The impact of immigration on unemployment in Canada is examined for the period 1983-1985. The authors attempt to construct a balance sheet of immigration in terms of labor supply and demand. They conclude that immigrants create more jobs than they fill, and that their net effect on the employment situation is positive. (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

Caribbean immigrants in Britain and Canada: socio-economic adjustment

This paper compares the socioeconomic experiences of Caribbean immigration in Britain and Canada and shows how differing immigration trends together with changing economic circumstances influenced the process of integration. Caribbean immigrants in Canada are more recent arrivals than those in Britain and, in 1981, were still experiencing initial adjustment problems aggravated by an economy in which unemployment is still high. Unlike Britain, which has a large population born in that country of West Indian parentage, the "2nd generation" in Canada is small and mostly still in school. Despite higher levels of education and qualifications than their counterparts in Britain, Caribbean immigrants in Canada faced similar problems. Males were relatively more concentrated in manufacturing industries in Canada and in transportation in Britain, sectors which were undergoing significant structural change and experiencing high levels of unemployment. Earned income was below average in both countries but there were interesting gender differences. Caribbean women experienced the same "earnings gap", relative to men, that characterized most women in the labor force. However, Caribbean women were relatively more successful than men, as measured by unemployment rates and earned incomes. This appears to be due to their qualifications in nursing and other service occupations that continued to expand, and to be in demand in the 1970s and 1980s, when other occupations were declining in response to technological change and "post-industrial" developments. In both countries there were residual disadvantages, faced by Caribbean men and women, which cannot be statistically explained by factors such as age, education, period of immigration, or structural changes in the economy. These can be attributed, at least in part, to the institutionalized prejudice and discrimination against racial minorities which is prevalent in both societies. In absolute terms Caribbean immigrants in Canada are clearly better off than their counterparts in Britain. However, relative to other immigrants, and the native-born population with similar demographic characteristics and educational qualifications, those in Canada experience similar disadvantages.     

Unemployment,immigration, and NAFTA: a panel study of ten major U.S. industries

We conduct a pooled cross-section and time-series analysis of the unemployment rates across ten major industries in the U.S. from 1983 to 1994 to assess the effect of NAFTA and immigration. Our results indicate that the output produced by the industry, unemployment benefit coverage, and interest rates are significant determinants of industry unemployment rates, but union presence does not affect industry unemployment. Both Canadian and Mexican immigrants appear to be complements to the U.S. labor force, with Canadian immigrants highly complementary to American labor. Finally, the Chow test provides no evidence that NAFTA has changed the structure of unemployment determination in these industries. We are indebted to Emily Hoffman and Matthew Higgins for their comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.     

Economic adaptation of refugees in Canada: experience of a quarter century

This paper examines the economic adaptation, in terms of employment and income, for 400,000 refugees, mainly displaced persons, Hungarians, Czechoslovaks, Ugandan Asians, Chileans, and Indochinese, in Canada during the last 25 years. The author looks at 1) east in obtaining a first job, 2) unemployment, 3) wives' employment, 4) job search techniques, and 5) occupation. Economic climate largely determines the time needed to find a first job. 55% of Hungarian refugees in 1957-58 found a job within a month; only 30% of Czechoslovak refugees in 1968-69 found a job within a month. Refugees and regular immigrants have higher unemployment than native Canadians; but the rate drops dramatically within a few years. Employment and unemployment for refugees is influenced by 1) prevailing labor market conditions, 2) English and/or French language proficiency, 3) sympathy by the population for the refugees, 4) support by people of the same ethnic group, and 5) the refugees' own adaptability. Survey results show that more refugee wives are employed than Canadian born wives; over 69% of Chilean refugee women worked in 1975-76. Most refugees use the Canada Employment Center, and informal channels such as "word of mouth" and friends and relatives to find jobs. Lack of qualifications and experience, and lack of language proficiency hinder many refugees in finding jobs for which they have trained. Income is an indicator of the success of refugee economic adaptation. Refugees, like regular immigrants, have lower than average income levels in their first years in Canada; however, they often earn more than the Canadian born after the difficult first years. Family incomes, because of female labor force participation, may widen the differences even more. Although many refugees are not working in their intended professions, most refugee groups have adjusted well economically in Canada.     

The Canada-United States joint immigration study: issues in data comparability

The Canada-US immigration project is an attempt to assess carefully the flows, trends, and characteristics of immigrants between the 2 countries. The primary focus for data is the census information derived from the 1980 US and 1981 Canadian censuses. Some observations of the comparison follow. 1) US-born immigrants tend to migrate later. 2) Immigrants have an older age structure than the total population. 3) The sex ratio pattern is similar with older migrants having lower ratios. 4) Immigration of elderly/retired is not a common pattern. 5) Changes in regional destinations is a basic feature of immigration flows. The destination of US immigrants shifted over time from northern states to southern states. Destinations of Canadian immigrants shifted over time from Quebec and prairie provinces to Ontario and British Columbia. 6) A higher proportion of US immigrants ever married and were widowed; higher proportions of Canadian immigrants divorced, and lower proportions separated. These aspects reflect age structure. 7) US immigrants' fertility is similar to the US population in general; Canadian immigrants' fertility is similar to the Canadian population in general. 8) US immigrants born in Canada have a considerably higher attainment. 9) Males aged 16-64 among US immigrants born in Canada have a consistently higher labor force participation rate. 10) Professional specialty occupations increase in importance in the 1975-1980 period in both countries. 11) Incomes of recent immigrants who were full-time, year-round workers from Canada or the US were well above the incomes of the native populations of either country. Comparability had to be examined in light of the variations built into the 2 censuses. Some of these issues are: 1) differences in sampling and collection methods, 2) differences in under/over-enumeration, 3) misreporting of country of birth, 4) differences in questions used, 5) different editing and imputation procedures applied, 6) variations in residence rules, and 7) the exclusion or inclusion of certain groups in the national census counts.     

A cross-country comparison of alcohol,tobacco, and marijuana use among youth who are employed,in school or out of the labor force and school (OLFS)

Labor force and school attachment may influence alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use in the US and Canada. Differences in social welfare provision, which provide protections for individuals with insecure attachments to the labor force or education, may in turn impact the behavior and health of youth in these countries. Yet, there is little research to understand the health consequences for youth of being out of the labor force and school (OLFS). Data of 25–29 year old participants of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (year 2010) and the Canadian Community Health Survey (2009–2010) were used to examine differences in substance use by labor force and school attachment. Logistic regression suggests that OLFS in the US and Canada were less likely to report alcohol uptake and more likely to use tobacco compared to employed youth. Unemployment was differentially associated with substance use behaviors by country. Country of residence and subsequent exposure to social welfare policy does not appear to impact substance use behaviors among OLFS. However, associations of unemployment and gender by country indicates differences in substance use behavior. More research should seek to understand factors that influence alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use among OLFS and unemployed youth.     

The unemployment insurance compensation. Usage of Canada's immigrants in selected provinces, 1981-1988

This paper explores the relationship between province of residence and the use of unemployment insurance (UI) among immigrants who landed in Canada during the period 1981-88.
Use of a new data set, the Longitudinal Immigration Data Base, overcomes the restriction that other data sets are cross-sectional only in nature or do not identify birthplace.
Our principal conclusion is that more generous UI benefits and poorer economic conditions than the Canadian average have a positive impact on the fraction of immigrants who receive UI. In addition, the province of residence has a separate effect on the likelihood of claiming UI, perhaps due to mobility costs.
Because national immigration policies have a differential impact across provinces, it is understandable that provincial policy makers wish to have greater influence over federal immigration policies.     

Are immigrants and natives perfect substitutes in production?

This article discusses whether immigrant and native labor are perfect substitutes in production when conventional measures of skill and demographic characteristics are held constant. The ratio of immigrant to native labor and the ratio of immigrant to native earnings are studied in 5 major immigrant receiving countries with other variables held constant. Countries included are 1) the US and Britian, where the foreign born are only about 5% to 6% of the adult male labor force; 2) Canada and Australia, where they are about 20% and 30%, respectively; and 3) Israel, where the foreign born are about 3/4 of the Jewish adult male labor force. The relative earnings of adult male immigrants and the adult male native-born sons of immigrants are found to be lower when the labor supply of immigrants is greater. The estimated elasticity of substitution between immigrant and native labor is high, but significantly less than infinity. Workers who are relatively more intensively in the favorable self selection characteristics of immigrants are not perfect substitutes for workers relatively more intensive in country-specific skills. As immigrants increase in the labor force, their relative earnings tend to fall, although the decline is small. Economies have sufficiently flexible markets and develop institutional arrangements to mitigate the relative fail in immigrant earnings as their relative supply increase.     

Meatpacking and the Transformation of Rural Communities: A Comparison of Brooks,Alberta and Garden City,Kansas*

Abstract North America's meatpackers have relied upon immigrants to staff their plants from the earliest days of the industry in the late nineteenth century when packinghouses were located in urban areas adjacent to stockyards. A hundred years later the industry remains dependent on an immigrant labor force, but now most of its plants are located in rural areas. This means rural communities are transformed with the arrival of immigrants to staff their plants. But Canada and the United States have different immigration policies, which means they draw upon different immigrant sources. Canada favors the recruitment of highly skilled labor while the United States emphasizes family reunification. This paper examines whether this difference affects the labor force composition of a Canadian and U.S. meatpacking plant, and the associated transformation of the plants' host communities.     

The nation's youth: an employment perspective

Statistics on youth employment problems are quite revealing—they accounted for almost one fourth of the unemployed eventhough they constituted only one-tenth of the nation's labor force in 1977. Youth unemployment is universally high, but variations by area of residence are evident and can be useful in analyzing their job market problems. To this end, data on the labor force characteristic of the nation's 16.5 million young people in three geographic areas—central cities, suburbs, and nonmetropolitan areas were examined. This investigation utilizes metropolitan and nonmetropolitan area data gathered monthly through a sample survey of some 47,000 households throughout the nation during 1977. Further, the labor market experience of both whites and blacks, and males and females are compared.     

Before Crisis: Gender and Economic Outcomes of the Two Largest Immigrant Communities in Spain1

In this study, we compare labor force outcomes of the two largest immigrant communities in Spain (Moroccans and Romanians) before the economic crisis hit. We are interested in understanding if and how gender influences the labor force outcomes (wage per hour, labor force participation, and unemployment rate) of these two immigrant groups. Our analyses show that, overall, gender is an important variable on Spanish labor market, but it affects differently the two groups. There is a male job market and a female job market for both Romanian and Moroccan immigrants, with men earning significantly higher wages than women. However, while for Moroccans, working women differ significantly from men in terms of demographic characteristics, Romanian women and men have similar demographic characteristics and comparable levels of labor force participation, but differ in terms of wage levels.     

Are young first and second generation immigrants at a disadvantage in the Australian labor market?

"This paper examines the assimilation hypothesis for young adult first- and second-generation immigrants in Australia. Models of the total weeks of unemployment and the number of spells of unemployment are examined as indicators of relative labor market conditions. The study differs from earlier work by focusing on young first- and second-generation immigrants and by utilizing information over four consecutive years of the Australian Longitudinal Survey (ALS) data, a comprehensive data set compiled for 1985-1988. The results consistently indicate that even when controlling for qualifications, both first- and second-generation immigrants are at a disadvantage."     

Brazilian immigration to North America

"This article is a comparative study of Brazilian immigration to Canada and the United States. Analysis of recently collected data in Toronto, Ontario and in a medium-size U.S. community facilitated the examination of the adaptation and adjustment experiences of a new group of immigrants to North America. This article begins with a discussion of the origins of this recent immigrant group and its rapid expansion. Next, it focuses on the labor force activities of Brazilian immigrants and compares and contrasts their experiences in the United States and Canada. A final section examines social adaptation in North America by exploring linguistic and cultural dimensions. This article closes with a section on the future aspirations of these immigrants."     

EMPLOYMENT DYNAMICS OF IMMIGRANTS VERSUS NATIVES: EVIDENCE FROM THE BOOM‐BUST PERIOD IN SPAIN, 2000–2011

This article studies whether the durations in unemployment and employment for immigrants and natives respond differently to changes in economic conditions and to the receipt of unemployment benefits. Using Spanish administrative data for the period 2000–2011, we estimate multi‐spell duration models that disentangle unobserved heterogeneity from true duration dependence. Our findings suggest that immigrants are more sensitive to changes in economic conditions both in terms of unemployment and employment hazards. The effect of the business cycle is not constant but decreases with duration at a higher rate among immigrants. We provide evidence that the higher job separation rates and lower capital‐labor complementarity of immigrants are mechanisms that are possibly compatible with these results. We also find evidence of a disincentive effect of unemployment benefits on unemployment duration, which is stronger for immigrants, but only at the beginning of the unemployment spell, especially under good economic conditions. Finally, unemployment benefits increase job match quality only for native workers with temporary contracts. (JEL J64, J61, C23, C41, J65)     

Institutional Structure and Immigrant Integration: A Comparative Study of Immigrants' Labor Market Attainment in Canada and Israel1

The present study focuses on the incorporation of immigrants from the former Soviet Union in two receiving societies, Israel and Canada, during the first half of the 1990s. Both countries conducted national censuses in 1995 (Israel) and 1996 (Canada), making it possible to identify a large enough sample of immigrants and provide information on their demographic characteristics and their labor market activity. While both Canada and Israel are immigrant societies, their institutional contexts of immigrant reception differ considerably. Israel maintains no economic selection of the Jewish immigrants and provides substantial support for newcomers, who are viewed as a returning Diaspora. Canada employs multiple criteria for selecting immigrants, and the immigrants' social and economic incorporation is patterned primarily by market forces. The analysis first examines the characteristics of immigrants who arrived in the two countries and evaluates the extent of selectivity. Consistent with our hypotheses, Russian immigrants to Canada were more immediately suitable for the labor market, but experienced greater difficulty finding and maintaining employment. Nevertheless, immigrants to Canada attained higher‐status occupations and higher earnings than their compatriots in Israel did, although the Israeli labor market was more likely to reward their investments in education.     

Labor market outcomes of immigrant women in the United States: 1970 to 1990

42% of immigrant workers in the US are women. Data from the 1970, 1980, and 1990 US censuses are analyzed in the study of differences in labor market outcomes between US-born and immigrant women, and among immigrant women born in different countries or regions of the world. There was little difference between US-born and immigrant women as a whole in 1970. However, over the next 20 years, immigrants women's labor force participation rate and weekly earnings relative to natives became lower, and their unemployment rates became higher. By 1990, the wage gap was 14%. At the same time, the share of self-employed women and the amount of time worked among employed women were almost the same for immigrant women and the US-born throughout the period 1970-90. Immigrants born in the UK, Canada, Europe, Japan, Korea, China, the Philippines, and the Middle East have had steady or improved wages and unemployment relative to US-born women. Immigrants from Mexico and Central America have experienced relatively high unemployment and low earnings, with the wage gap reaching 35% in 1990. Disparities in the number of completed years of schooling explains a substantial share of the observed differences in labor market outcomes.     

Unemployment Transitions among Brazilians in the United States and Canada

This study uses the job search framework to examine the unemployment experiences of Brazilian immigrants in the North American labour force. Primary data gathered in Canada and the United States is used in these analyses. The model generally used to monitor transitions among the native‐born was modified to make it more appropriate to the immigrant experience. To do this a composite model was constructed that incorporates variables unique to the immigrant experience. Event history analyses revealed that, in general, job search theory is very relevant for examining the transitions of immigrants. However, not all standard measures behaved as predicted (e.g. reservation wage). Several immigrant specific variables were very significant (e.g. target earner and legal status) and improved the overall model fit. Brazilians who worked primarily with other co‐ethnics were more likely to become re‐employed than those who did not, while working for a Brazilian employer had no effect on being re‐employed. US/Canadian comparisons also revealed that residents of Canada endured longer periods of unemployment. We believe this result is because Canadian residents had greater access to public services and, as such, were able to have higher reservation wages.     

The economic role of immigrant wives in Hong Kong

The objectives of this study were to compare the employment pattern of immigrant wives with native-born wives in Hong Kong, to examine the independent influences of sociodemographic characteristics and the assimilation experience on employment behavior of immigrant wives, and to establish the extent to which immigrant wives' employment is affected by social and demographic factors and conditioned on the assimilation strategy adopted by their families. Data of the 1986 census were used, based on a 1% sample of currently married women 20-44 years old. 5478 women were identified by place of birth and length of residence in Hong Kong and 3214 native-born women were used as a comparison group. Of this 5478, 2018 women were earlier immigrants from mainland China who had lived in Hong Kong for more than 5 years and 246 were recent Chinese immigrants. Labor force participation of the native born was 51.87% and that of China born was 48.89%, however, early immigrants had a rate of participation of 46.84% and recent immigrants had 66.81%. The labor market incorporation of early immigrants showed that 10.28% were self-employed and 13.13% were outworkers, which was in contrast to the native-born, who were more represented in employee occupations. 79.12% of native-born were wage employees compared 69.58% of early immigrants. Immigrant wives were disadvantaged regarding education and vocational training; their wages were substantially lower than those of the native-born women. Immigrant families had an average of 2.2 children, compared to 1.7 for natives. Logit analysis showed that age had a negative relationship with labor force participation, while education had a positive effect, and recent immigrants had a significantly higher labor force participation. Multinominal logit analysis found that more educated and better skilled women were significantly more likely to engage in wage employment. Children in the family restricted women's participation in wage employment.     

Propensity of Canada's Foreign‐born to Claim Unemployment Insurance Benefits

This article examines the relationship between claiming unemployment insurance benefits in Canada and the immigrant class under which immigrants were admitted (namely skilled workers, assisted relatives, family class, refugees), using a new data set that combines income tax and immigration records. Claims rates (or the proportion of immigrants who claimed unemployment insurance benefits) are calculated for each immigrant landing class for the cohorts of immigrants who landed in 1980, 1985 and 1989; for each cohort, annual claims rates are presented from the year after landing to 1995. The claims rates indicate that there are significant differences among the different immigrant landing classes: those admitted as skilled workers have relatively low claims rates, those in the family class or assisted relatives have higher rates, and refugees have the highest rates. For all immigrant landing classes, claims rates rise rapidly during the two or three years after arrival in Canada, but decline thereafter for all classes. Differences in claims rates on unemployment insurance benefits remain across the immigrant landing classes after general economic conditions and some characteristics of the immigrants are controlled.     

Stepping from Illegality to Legality and Advancing towards Integration: The Case of Immigrants in Greece1

This paper highlights how the social and economic situation of immigrants changes after their formal legalization and discusses what they nave to go through for their complete integration. Legalization can hardly solve the problem of immigrant employment, nor can it pull all immigrants out of the underground labor market and integrate them into the Greek economy ana society. The process towards complete integration is painful and involves a series of successive phases of various durations. During this period, apart from economic conditions, various institutional and cultural factors can hinder or delay integration. With respect to economic integration, immigrants seem to fare rather well. Their official unemployment rate is only slightly higher than the Greek unemployment rate, the two rates converging over time. This suggests increasing relative opportunities for immigrant employment, precarious or stable as it might be. Immigrant jobs come as a result of their flexible adjustment to the needs of the labor market ‐ official or underground ‐ compared to the inflexibility in the supply of Greek workers, due to labor mismatches and relatively high reservation wages. Wages of immigrants are generally lower, but are approaching the wages of their Greek counterparts. Educated immigrants much more than educated Greeks are forced by the circumstances to exercise jobs not measuring up to their qualifications.