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Occupational skills and labour market progression of married immigrant women in Canada

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  • Adserà, Alícia
  • Ferrer, Ana

Abstract

We use the confidential files of the 1991–2006 Canadian Census, combined with information from O*NET on the skill requirements of jobs, to explore whether immigrant women behave as secondary workers, remaining marginally attached to the labour market and experiencing little career progression over time. Our results show that the current labour market patterns of female immigrants to Canada do not fit this profile, as previous studies found, but rather conform to patterns recently exhibited by married native women elsewhere, with rising participation and wage progression. At best, only relatively uneducated immigrant women in unskilled occupations may fit the profile of secondary workers, with slow skill mobility and low-status job-traps. Educated immigrant women, on the other hand, experience skill assimilation over time: a reduction in physical strength and an increase in analytical skills required in their jobs relative to those of natives.

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  • Adserà, Alícia & Ferrer, Ana, 2016. "Occupational skills and labour market progression of married immigrant women in Canada," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 88-98.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:39:y:2016:i:c:p:88-98
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2016.02.003
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    Cited by:

    1. Ferrer, Ana M. & Mascella, Allison, 2022. "Immigrant gaps in parental time investments into children's human capital activities," CLEF Working Paper Series 48, Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo.
    2. David A. Green & Christopher Worswick, 2017. "Canadian economics research on immigration through the lens of theories of justice," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(5), pages 1262-1303, December.
    3. Alícia Adserà & Ana M. Ferrer & Virginia Hernanz, 2023. "Differences in Skill Requirements Between Jobs Held by Immigrant and Native Women Across Five European Destinations," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(3), pages 1-29, June.
    4. Manuel, Nick, 2024. "Does the labour market value field of study specific knowledge? An alignment score based approach," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
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    6. Renate Ortlieb & Julian Winterheller, 2020. "Behind Migrant and Non‐Migrant Worktime Inequality in Europe: Institutional and Cultural Factors Explaining Differences," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(4), pages 785-815, December.
    7. Guoqing Shi & Yuanke Zhao & Xiaoya Mei & Dengcai Yan & Hubiao Zhang & Yuangang Xu & Yingping Dong, 2022. "Livelihood Resilience Perception: Gender Equalisation of Resettlers from Rural Reservoirs—Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-22, September.
    8. Jiang, Shiyu, 2020. "Task Specialization, Wage, and Immigration in Canada," MPRA Paper 103988, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Shiyu Jiang, 2021. "Task Specialization, Wage, and Immigration in Canada," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 22(2), pages 389-420, November.
    10. Alícia Adserà & Ana Ferrer, 2021. "Linguistic Proximity and the Labour Market Performance of Immigrant Men in Canada," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 35(1), pages 1-23, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Skill assimilation; Family investment hypothesis; Labour market outcomes of immigrant women; Wage gaps; Female labour force participation; Canadian migration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration

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