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A Study of Poverty and Working Poverty among Recent Immigrants to Canada

4.1 Socio-demographic characteristics

Recent immigrants of working age had certain characteristics that made their prospects for labour market integration in 2004 favourable. On average they were better educated and were less likely to have work-limiting disabilities than native-born Canadians.

Recent immigrants differ from native-born Canadians in a number of ways. As seen in Table 2, working-age recent immigrants tended to be slightly younger than native-born Canadians. As well, they were more likely to be members of a two-parent family. Close to half (47%) of working-age recent immigrants had spouses and dependent children under the age of 18 in 2004, while this was the case for one-third (33%) of native-born Canadians in the same age group. Moreover, recent immigrants were much less likely to be unattached (8% vs. 17%). Therefore, their families were in general larger than those of native-born Canadians. In 2004, new immigrant families were comprised (on average) of 3.7 individuals, while those of native-born Canadians were made up of 2.9 members.

As well, recent immigrants were much more likely to live in a major urban centre and to be members of a visible minority. In fact, close to 60% of all recent immigrants were living in either Toronto or Vancouver in 2004, compared to only 14% of native-born Canadians. Furthermore, no less than three out of four recent immigrants were members of a visible minority, while this percentage was only three of every hundred among adults born in Canada.

On average, recent immigrants were also better educated and in better health than native-born Canadians. A higher percentage of them held a university degree in 2004 (35% vs. 20%), and a smaller percentage reported work-limiting disabilities (7% vs. 12%).

However, their average number of years of full-time experience in the labour market was particularly low. In 2004, recent immigrants reported on average half as many years of experience in the labour market as native-born Canadians of the same age group (7.7 years vs. 15.3 years).⁹

Table 2
Profile of working-age Canadians, by immigrant status, 2004
	Native-born Canadians (15,306,300)	Recent Immigrants (1,460,900)	Earlier Immigrants (2,052,800)
Average age	39.7 years	37.1 years	47.8 years
Average no. of years in Canada	N/A	7.9 years	30.0 years
% males	50.4%	46.1%	47.4%
% unattached individuals	16.8%	8.0%	11.0%
% couples without children <18	35.2%	28.1%	36.3%
% two-parent families	33.2%	47.0%	32.6%
% lone-parent families	4.5%	3.8%	3.3%
% other types of families	10.4%	13.1%	16.9%
Average no. of pers. in the family	2.9	3.7	3.2
Average no. of children in the family	0.6	0.8	0.6
Average no. of breadwinners in the family	1.9	2.1	2.0
% without a high school diploma	15.0%	11.1%	16.2%
% with a high school diploma	26.3%	22.4%	23.6%
% with more than a high school diploma	38.8%	31.3%	37.1%
% with a university degree*	19.9%	35.3%	23.0%
Average no. of years of full-time experience*	15.3 years	7.7 years	19.1 years
% with work limitations	11.9%	6.9%	12.4%
% black	0.7%	6.7%	6.4%
% Arab	0.3%	11.2%	3.4%
% Asian (Chinese, Korean and Japanese)	1.8%	38.5%	22.2%
% other visible minorities	0.6%	18.8%	9.6%
% live in Montreal	11.2%	12.0%	10.2
% live in Toronto	9.2%	38.9%	34.3
% live in Vancouver	4.9%	18.2%	12.3
* The information on level of education and experience is derived from variables for which there were some missing values. Estimates were obtained only from observations for which information was available.

Table 2 also shows that in 2004 the characteristics of immigrants who arrived in Canada since the early nineties were different from those of earlier immigrants, which tended to be more like those of native-born Canadians, at least in terms of education level, number of years of experience in the labour market, and the prevalence of work limitations among them. This finding is also partially true for the type of family to which they belong, since non-recent immigrants were as likely to be in a couple, with our without children, as native-born Canadians. Those who were not part of a couple were nonetheless more likely to live with relatives than to live alone, while the opposite was more often the case for native-born Canadians.

Earlier immigrants of working age were on average considerably older than recent immigrants as well as native-born Canadians. Although less so than recent immigrants, non-recent immigrants were more likely to be part of a visible minority and to live in Toronto or Vancouver than native-born Canadians. It should also be noted that the percentage of persons of Arab origin was smaller among immigrants of cohorts prior 1990 than among more recent immigrants.

4.2 Status on the labour market

Labour market status of immigrant males (recent or not) was similar to that of native-born Canadians in 2004. However, immigrant females were less likely to participate in the labour market that native-born women.

Despite certain characteristics favourable to labour market integration among recent immigrants (more likely to have a university degree, few work limitations, etc.), they reported much less experience in the labour market (8 years on average, as compared with 15 years for native-born Canadians). Table 3 shows that there were no significant differences between their labour market status and that of native-born Canadians. On the whole, working-age recent immigrants were only slightly more likely to be full-time students and somewhat less likely to have worked at least 910 hours in 2004 compared to native-born Canadians.

Table 3
Labour market status of working-age adults in Canada, by immigrant status, 2004
	Native-born Canadians	Recent Immigrants	Earlier Immigrants
% Full-time students (FTSs)	10.6%	14.2%	4.7%
% Non-FTSs, 0 hours of work	14.8%	17.1%	22.5%
% Non-FTSs, self-employed	13.2%	12.3%	17.1%
% Non-FTSs, 1-909 hrs. of salaried work	6.5%	6.4%	5.3%
% Non-FTSs, 910-1499 hrs. of salaried work	6.7%	5.6%	4.7%
% Non-FTSs, 1500+ hrs. of salaried work	44.1%	37.3%	40.2%
% Missing values	4.1%	7.1%	5.5%

However, when a gender-based analysis is performed (see Table 4), a number of differences between the labour market status of recent immigrants and that of other Canadians are observed. The percentage of men who accumulated hours of work in 2004 was very similar among all groups studied (approximately 80%). However, female recent immigrants are a little bit less likely to have demonstrated labour market attachment. In 2004, slightly more than half (54%) of female working-age recent immigrants reported a positive number of hours of work, while over two-thirds (68%) of native-born Canadian women did so. Compared to other women of the same age group, female recent immigrants were substantially more likely to be full-time students.

Table 4
Labour market status of working-age adults in Canada, by immigrant status and gender (Male vs. Female), 2004
	Native-born Canadians		Recent Immigrants		Earlier Immigrants
	M	F	M	F	M	F
% Full-time students (FTSs)	10.1%	11.1%	10.0%	17.9%	4.9%	4.4%
% Non-FTSs, 0 hours of work	10.1%	19.5%	8.0%	24.7%	15.9%	28.4%
% Non-FTSs, self-employed	16.4%	10.0%	17.7%	7.4%	21.7%	13.7%
% Non-FTSs, 1-909 hrs. of salaried work	4.5%	8.6%	5.2%	7.4%	3.4%	7.1%
% Non-FTSs, 910+ hrs. of salaried work	54.6%	47.1%	51.7%	35.4%	48.6%	41.1%
% Missing values	4.3%	3.9%	7.3%	6.9%	5.6%	5.4%

4.3 Family income characteristics

Despite labour market status similar to that of other Canadians, recent immigrants had a lower standard of living.

Disposable family income (i.e. income after transfers and taxes) of recent immigrants of working-age (Table 5), was on average significantly lower than that of other Canadians (including earlier immigrants and native-born Canadians). In 2004, it represented only 86% of the disposable family income of native-born Canadians in the same age group. When family size is taken into consideration (Table 6), the difference between the disposable family income of recent immigrants and that of native-born Canadians is even larger. Given that recent immigrant families had more family members on average in 2004, their family income adjusted for family size represented 76% of that of native-born Canadians. In short, despite a labour market status similar to that of other working-age Canadians (especially for men), the standard of living for recent immigrants was considerably lower. It is worth noting that the family income characteristics of earlier immigrants are very close to that of native-born Canadians.

**Table 5**
**Characteristics of *average family income* ($) of working-age adults in Canada, by immigrant status, 2004**
	Native-born Canadians	Recent Immigrants	Earlier Immigrants
Disposable income*	64,200	55,400	66,300
Earned income	67,200	55,300	65,700
Income from government transfers	5,100	5,900	6,400
Income from social assistance¹⁰	600	900	600
Employment insurance income	1,400	1,800	1,000
* Negative family incomes were brought back to zero and some extreme values were omitted for the "Native-born Canadians" category (two observations for which the disposable family income was more than 5 million.)

Table 6
Characteristics of *average family income* ($) of working-age adults in Canada, by immigrant status, 2004 - adjusted to take family size into account*
	Native-born Canadians	Recent Immigrants	Earlier Immigrants
Disposable income	37,100	28,300	36,100
Earned income	38,600	28,700	35,400
Income from government transfers	3,000	2,800	3,500
Income from social assistance	400	500	400
Employment insurance income	800	900	600
* Adjustment was made using the Low Income Measure's equivalence scale. This adjustment takes into consideration that family needs increase with family size.

⁹ In the SLID, the questions pertaining to work experience did not specify where this experience had been acquired. For instance, respondents are asked whether they have previously worked full time, not counting summer employment as a student. Full time is indicated as referring to 30 hours or more a week, including all sources of employment. Source: Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID): interview questionnaire for reference year 2004. It should be noted that the SLID includes a significant number of observations for which there is a missing value for the derived variable pertaining to the number of years of experience in the labour force, and that averages were calculated without the missing values.

¹⁰ Kapsalis (2001) demonstrated some under-reporting of Social assistance (SA) and Employment insurance (EI) in SLID. However, according to Kapsalis, incidence of SA and EI are more accurate than the actual amount reported. Furthermore, there is no evidence that points for a more important under-reporting of these transfers for recent immigrants than for other groups.

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