Closing the wage gap: Economic assimilation of Canadian immigrants reconsidered

This article investigates the wage growth of immigrants in Canada. A wage gap between newly landed immigrants and native-born Canadians may be quite natural for a variety of reasons, but do immigrants narrow this wage gap as they become more attuned to local market conditions? One measure of economic assimilation by immigrants is their wage growth relative to that of other Canadians. Also, to what extent is current understanding of economic assimilation derived from cross-sectional data altered by examining panel data? This article employs the master file of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) panel to reconsider the labour market performance of immigrants, particularly with regard to adjustment questions such as wagegrowth. We review the major Canadian econometric studies on immigrant assimilation, discuss the differences arising from cross-sectional studies and models that employ panel data, and present results estimated using the SLID panel.     

Human Capital and the Economic Assimilation of Recent Immigrants in Hong Kong

Using data from the 1996, 2001, and 2006 years of the Hong Kong Population Census, this paper reported the nativity earnings gap among a synthetic cohort of immigrant and native male Chinese employees in Hong Kong. Consistent with previous research, we found earnings divergence for all workers. However, this earnings divergence masked a reverse trend for low-skilled workers. Over time, low-skilled immigrant workers gained earnings assimilation with low-skilled native workers, but high-skilled immigrant workers did not gain assimilation with high-skilled native workers. A decomposition analysis suggested that the relative skill prices cannot explain the overtime change in the relative mean-earnings gaps by nativity. Further separating pre- and postmigration education of immigrants did not improve the explanatory power of the relative skill prices. Our results for Hong Kong are consistent with the findings from recent research on the economic assimilation of low-skilled immigrants in other countries.     

Economic Assimilation of Asian Indians in the United States: Evidence from the 1990s

Although Asian Indians constitute one of the largest and fastest-growing immigrant groups in the United States, there has been no systematic examination of their economic performance. This paper studies the relative wage convergence of Asian Indians in the United States, using the 5/100 1990 and 2000 US Censuses. Results from cross-sectional and cohort analyses indicate that, although the recent-arrival cohort of Asian Indian males and females face a wage penalty relative to native-born non-Hispanic whites, there is significant growth in their wages over the decade, suggesting strong economic assimilation. However, overall, the group is not able to reach wage parity with comparable native-born whites even after residing in the country for 20 years. These results are in line with the existing evidence on post-1965 immigrants in the United States. Furthermore, results indicate that Asian Indians experience greater wage assimilation compared with Other Asians, and within the Asian Indian group, females experience greater economic assimilation compared with males.     

The dialogical self in a cultural contact zone: Exploring the perceived ‘cultural correction’ function of schooling

This paper discusses a qualitative study that explores the impact the development of a cultural contact zone has upon identity processes in the Dialogical Self. The analysis draws upon interviews with Irish nationals, immigrants and asylum seekers in a new cultural contact zone. The findings illustrate uncertainty experienced as a result of immigration, suggesting that the development of the contact zone caused cultural discontinuity. The individuals' uncertainty for their cultural identities' future viability demanded the development of identity strategies to maintain continuity with their perceived cultural future, where they were faced with cultural others. Identity repositionings and a strategy to maintain continuity will be explored in the current paper. The Irish and asylum seeker participants' unprompted focus on schooling will be explored as a continuity strategy. The participants constructed schooling as a tool for the ‘cultural correction’ of migrant children and a means for the assimilation of migrants into the Irish community. The paper discusses the function of this strategy for the two groups, and the theoretical integration of cultural level processes in the theory of the Dialogical Self. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Selectivity and immigration in Canada

One perennial policy question in Canada concerns the kind of immigrants Canada should admit. Should it be those with the best prospects of fast economic assimilation in the labour market?. This research note sketches the earnings outcomes of immigrants associated with different admission categories. Specifically, we examine two databases. The Immigration Data Base (IMDB) provides information on admission categories by linking immigration, administrative records with income tax files. The Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) is a longitudinal sample that provides a comprehensive profile of immigrants and native-born Canadians. The IMDB and SLID datasets provide valuable information on the economic outcomes of immigrants in quite different ways.     

Of Intake and Outcomes: Wage Trajectories of Immigrant Classes in Canada

This study utilizes tabular data from the Canadian “Immigration Database” (IMDB) to look at the association between entry class and the wage earnings of immigrant cohorts arriving between 1990 and 2007. As expected, immigrants entering as skilled, principal applicants have the strongest earnings trajectories. Immigrants who enter under family or humanitarian considerations see more moderate earnings growth with government-assisted having the shallowest earnings trajectories.     

Brief Report: Comparing the Autobiographical Remembering of Iranian Immigrant Trauma Survivors with That of Iranian and British Trauma Survivors

This study investigated how culture and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) influence the autobiographical remembering of Iranian trauma survivors living in Britain compared to the remembering of British trauma survivors living in their host culture (Britain) and Iranians in their culture of origin (Iran). Iranian immigrants with and without PTSD completed measures of autobiographical remembering. Data was compared to previously collected data from British and Iranian trauma survivors with and without PTSD. It was found that the memory‐content of Iranian immigrants' memories resembled that of Iranian trauma survivors in Iran, while the phenomenological properties of their autobiographical remembering more closely resembled that of British trauma survivors. Moreover, there were pan‐cultural distortions and deficits in the autobiographical remembering of those with PTSD. The findings suggest that immigrants with PTSD have similar disruptions and distortions in their autobiographical remembering as that of individuals with PTSD living in their host culture and culture of origin.Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Service Needs of Immigrants and Refugees

This paper evaluates the service needs of immigrants and refugees, paying special attention to their entry status, social, and human capital. Analyses are based on administrative data consisting of 2915 clients collected by the YMCA of Western Ontario, Windsor-Essex Branch (YMO). Results reveal that immigrants’ and refugees’ major service need priorities are (1) government services and language skills, (2) information about Canadian life and access to community services, (3) education and work in Canada, and (4) social and professional networks and community involvement. These service needs varied by the entry status of the immigrant as well as human and social capital. Government-assisted and sponsored refugees identified more service needs than economic immigrants relating to Canadian life, language and skill training, and social networks. Sponsored refugees also identified more needs than the economic immigrants with respect to access to community services and work. Convention refugees’ higher service needs over economic immigrants were related to language training and access to community services. Finally, the service needs of clients with higher education, English proficiency, and ethnic networks were lower than those of their counterparts.     

The Backyard Politics of Attitudes Toward Immigration

Using two survey experiments, I reconsider the role that the racialized physical traits and level of assimilation of salient immigrants play in shaping attitudes toward immigration. In the first experiment, a nationwide sample of 767 White, non‐Latino adults was exposed to a story about a family of undocumented immigrants living in the Unites States who were at risk of deportation. Subjects were randomly assigned to view a version of the story in which the immigrants were depicted with light skin and stereotypically Eurocentric features, or dark skin and stereotypically Afrocentric features, and their level of assimilation to mainstream American culture was suggested to be high or low. Similar to previous research, the study's results show that assimilation has a direct effect on attitudes toward immigration. Yet in contrast to previous studies, the racialized physical traits proved to be a much more important factor in shaping attitudes toward immigration than previously demonstrated. The role of an immigrant's racialized physical traits was replicated in a second survey experiment of 902 White, non‐Latino adults. Overall, the findings shed new light on how media depictions of immigrants are affecting immigration attitudes, as well as the nuanced ways that race continues to shape public opinion in the United States today.     

The impact of multiculturalism on immigrant helping

We examined how immigrants' acculturation style (multiculturalism versus assimilation) affects the host society's willingness to help immigrants. The results from this experiment supported our expectations in showing that multiculturalism triggered less immigrant helping than assimilation, but only among high national identifiers. In addition, immigrants pursuing multiculturalism were perceived as less warm than those pursuing assimilation, and perceived warmth mediated the interaction effect of identification and acculturation style on helping. Whereas help could improve immigrants' integration into the host society and reduce the degree to which the latter views immigrants as threatening, these results ironically demonstrate that immigrants who are viewed as most threatening receive the least amount of help.     

The Representation of Immigrants in Federal,State, and Local Government Work Forces

Public sector employment of immigrants can increase their economic assimilation and potentially improve their treatment by government. Yet, as we show using Census data from 1990, 2000, and 2009–2011, immigrants are substantially underrepresented in federal, state, and local governments. To understand why, we use logit analysis for federal and for state and local government employment in each time period to test whether immigrants’ weaker educational attainment and English proficiency, lower probabilities of being citizens and military veterans, and different age, gender, and race/ethnicity distributions can explain that underrepresentation. Disparities in education and preferential government treatment of veterans are factors, but citizenship requirements appear to be the major obstacle to immigrant employment in the public sector.     

What happened to the Canada-United States brain drain of the 1990s? New evidence from the 2000 US census

This article uses the 2000 US Census to ascertain both quantitative and qualitative changes in Canadian immigrants to the United States through, the 1990s, and compares these to earlier migration cohorts from census data in 1980 and 1990. Canadians in the United States continue to have higher relative salaries and education levels vis-à-vis their American counterparts and this gap has widened in the 1990s, even when controlling for variety of labour market factors. A similar phenomenon occurred amongst immigrants from Britain and Ireland and suggests that US economic performance and immigration policy are the probable driving, force behind this migration.     

Immigrant Employment Success in Canada, Part I: Individual and Contextual Causes

An interdisciplinary synthesis of Canadian research on immigrant employment success points toward key research priorities. Four determinants of immigrant employment success are widely recognized as significant: immigration policy and settlement patterns, “entry” and assimilation over time, lower value of immigrant human capital, and origins of immigrants and the possibility of discrimination. Other determinants include labour market niches, social and cultural capital, and institutional contexts. Addressing key research priorities—and distinguishing individual and contextual causes—will require new analytic strategies and sources of data. A companion paper, Part II: Understanding the Decline, applies the framework presented here to research on declining employment success for immigrants.     

Admission and Employment Criteria Discrepancies: Experiences of Skilled Immigrants in Toronto

This research contributes to our understandings of the employment experiences of skilled immigrants in Canada by complementing and expanding upon statistical findings from previously published studies. Through in-depth interviews with 35 skilled immigrants from Bangalore, India living in Toronto, Canada, findings indicate that migrants experience employment frustrations stemming directly from the discrepancy between admission criteria (foreign education and work experience) and employment criteria (Canadian education and work experience). After summarizing the statistical data on the non-recognition of foreign credentials, we conclude that among our sample of immigrants, frustrations stem not from credential discounting in and of itself, but from Canada’s point system for entry, which misleads these migrants about its existence and prevalence.     

Do Attitudes Towards the Integration of Immigrants Change Over Time? A Comparative Study of Natives,Second-Generation Immigrants and Foreign-Born Residents in Luxembourg

The aim of this paper is to investigate attitudes toward the integration of immigrants in Luxembourg—the country with the highest proportion of immigrants in Europe. First, the paper examines how attitudes toward integration (consisting of two dimensions: attitudes toward assimilation and attitudes toward multiculturalism) vary among different groups of the country’s residents, i.e. natives and residents with a migratory background. Second, it examines how these attitudes have evolved over a period of nearly ten years. The Luxembourgish European Value Study data from 1999 and 2008 are used. The results of the analyses reveal that attitudes towards the integration of immigrants differ significantly among the resident groups analysed. Native residents are more supportive of the assimilation model compared to foreign-born residents and second-generation immigrants with two foreign-born parents, whereas the latter groups score higher on the multiculturalism scale than the other groups. With respect to trends in attitudes towards integration, the assimilation model gained popularity between 1999 and 2008 among all groups, whereas only a small decrease in popularity was found with respect to preferences for multicultural integration.     

Tú velas por los tuyos: Weak Labor Markets and the Importance of Social Networks

Literature on the economic incorporation of immigrants to new destinations has been missing a discussion on how the strength of the local economy affects immigrants’ need for social networks and how it might also affect the relative importance of strong versus weak ties for immigrant job seekers. Through the use of in-depth interviews, the role and importance of social networks in the labor market incorporation of Hispanic immigrants in economically weak cities is examined, as well as the consequences to those immigrants who are unable to command or lack access to social networks and/or ethnic resources. This paper contextualizes the importance of strong ties for immigrants in economically weak new destinations and argues that in places with such a constricted labor market and stagnant economies, it is imperative for recent arrivals to access and/or construct these strong ties in order to more effectively gain entry into the host society’s labor market.     

The adaptation of non‐western and Muslim immigrant adolescents in the Netherlands: An immigrant paradox?

van Geel, M. & Vedder, P. (2010). The adaptation of non‐western and Muslim immigrant adolescents in the Netherlands: An immigrant paradox? Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 398–402. This article addresses the possible existence of an immigrant paradox in a sample of immigrant adolescents attending vocational schools in the Netherlands. An immigrant paradox is the finding that first generation immigrants show a more positive pattern of adaptation than nationals despite poorer economic conditions. Second generation immigrants regress to the nationals in terms of adaptation. A sample of 152 first generation immigrant adolescents, 285 second generation immigrant adolescents and 406 national adolescents completed self‐reports about socio‐economic status, psychological problems, behavioral problems and self‐esteem. The results supported the existence of an immigrant paradox in this sample. This indicates that further assimilation among immigrant adolescents does not necessarily lead to increased well being.     

Location, Location, Location: Where Do Immigrants Reside in Australia?

Concentration of immigrants in a particular area has important implications for the provision of social services and the local labor market. This paper examines the location choice of immigrants in five major statistical regions in Australia using the 2001 Census of Population and Housing. The paper focuses on differences in location choice across birthplace groups and cohort arrivals. The results show that immigrants from the UK are less likely to reside in larger cities (e.g., Sydney, Melbourne) compared to immigrants from other birthplace groups, particularly those from non-English-speaking countries. Ethnic concentration has a positive effect on immigrants’ location choice, and this is consistent across arrival cohorts. Furthermore, all immigrants are attracted to a particular location with high concentration of poor English-speaking immigrants or concentration of young individuals. However, immigrants are not attracted to a particular location with concentration of individuals who have not completed high school.     

Foreign Workers’ Time Use in Spain: Evidence from the First Decade of the Twenty-First Century

The assimilation of immigrant workers to the Spanish labour market is a topic widely addressed by the economic literature. However, a little explored issue is the time allocation of immigrants and its effects on their integration and convergence to Spanish workers. This paper aims to study the time use of immigrants among different activities and the influence of personal and family characteristics on the participation and the amount of time spent in each activity. The results will be compared to those obtained for the native workers, in order to detect possible similarities and differences between both groups (immigrants versus natives). The data used come from the Time Use Survey for the periods 2002–2003 and 2009–2010 (INE, 2004, 2011), which allows analysing the evolution of the time use’s patterns of the immigrant and native workers at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Censored regression models are applied because the time spent in different activities is a left-truncated variable. The traditional approximation to the left-truncation is a Tobit model, but it assumes that the underlying process determining the participation and the time spent in each activity are similar, which is quite restrictive. To solve this restriction, a double hurdle model is applied.     

Evaluating the Character of People Who Insult the Nation: Implications for Immigrant Integration

We examine immigrant integration by analyzing how natives evaluate immigrants' character. Most literature examines how natives distinguish between immigrants with different levels of assimilation, which is best suited to identifying integration boundaries between different types of immigrants. We shift the analysis and examine the boundary between immigrants and natives, which measures integration by the extent to which immigrant status is relevant for character evaluations. We compare how natives respond to national insults that come from immigrants as opposed to natives. We focus on insulting the nation because it highlights the salience of national identity and clarifies the importance of group boundaries. We measure responses to national insults with vignette experiments from three original surveys in the United States. Our results are consistent with situationist theories of interpersonal interactions because they suggest that character evaluations are more dependent on the situational distinction between people who do and do not insult the nation than the demographic distinction between whether the insult comes from a native or immigrant. These findings have multiple implications for our understanding of national identity, immigrant integration, and immigrant‐native boundaries.