The Labour Market Vulnerabilities of Refugees in Canada: The Impacts of Entry Programs
Researchers: Monica Boyd1 and Shawn Perron1
Affiliations: University of Toronto1
Keywords: refugees, entry program, entry visas, economic outcomes, gender, age, gender inequalities in economic outcomes, socioeconomic integration, employment, income, labour force participation, privately sponsored refugees (PSRs), Government Assisted Refugees (GARS), Protected Persons in Canada (PPC), quantitative methodology
Jump to: Full infographic, Methodology, Findings
Summary
Overview: This study focused on three types of humanitarian class admissions between 1980 and 2014: government-assisted refugees (GARs), privately sponsored refugees (PSRs) and migrants who apply for asylum in Canada and become protected persons in Canada (PPC). The study looked at whether differences in entry programs and gender created differences in labour market integration and economic outcomes among refugee populations.
Objective: to document and analyze how different modes of entry (refugee subclasses) affect socioeconomic integration, and to demonstrate the additional impacts of gender on economic outcomes of refugees.
Research Justification: Research has shown that refugees in the Private Sponsorship (PSR) entry program have the best integration profiles and that male refugees have better labour market integration than females. This study tests whether differences in entry status and gender affect refugees’ economic integration.
Infographic Excerpt
Methodology
This study combines data from IRCC’s entry visa information and the 2016 census of population records. The target population is the first generation who immigrated at age 20+, between 1980 and 2014, and are currently aged 20-64 and residing in Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs). The research team tested for the possibilities that different refugee groups have different economic outcomes based on their mode of entry (GAR, PSR, or PPC). Gender differences are also scrutinized, producing 6 main groups of interest from the intersection of sex with the three refugee classes. The economic outcomes analysed in this study include occupational locations and earnings, as defined by the 2016 census.
To benchmark the results of this study with early findings, immigration characteristics (region of origin, decade of admission, and applicant status (principal applicant, spouse or dependents), social characteristics (marital status, education) and the previously noted economic outcomes are compared across three main admission categories: economic immigrants, family-class immigrants, and refugee, separately for women and men.
Two sets of methodologies were used in this study. Bi-variate analysis was used to produce informative cross-tabulations, charts and short summaries for a non-academic audience. Multivariate analyses (ordinary least squares’ logistic regression, multinomial regression) were conducted on a smaller subset of indicators (labour force participation, occupational location and earnings).
Findings
- Compared to economic and family immigrants, refugees have lower educational levels and are less likely to be part of the labour force. They have lower occupational scores and, on average, are more likely to be employed in low skilled occupations with low weekly earnings.
- A gender effect is evident; women in general do less well than men. Refugee women have the lowest earnings of all gender-immigrant status groups.
- The likelihood of participating in Canada’s labour force is significantly different for each of the 6 gender-refugee entry groups.
- GARs have the lowest labour force participation, with female GARs the least likely to be part of the labour force. For those who held an occupation in 2015 or 2016, GARs had the lowest occupational socioeconomic scores on average.
- For PSRs, GARs and PPCs, educational differences accounted for occupational status differences among men, but this was not the case for women.
- PPC refugees are the least likely to hold low skill occupations, which may reflect Canadian work experience acquired as a refugee claimant.
- In every refugee category, many more women hold low skill occupations than do men.
- For men, weekly earnings differ between PSRs, GARs, and PCCs when other characteristics, such as education, are taken into account. This was not true for women. Women earn less than men in every refugee admission class.
- Overall, although entry status differences are small within the refugee population, PSRs still tend to have earnings and occupational advantages net of country of origin, demographic, and human capital characteristics. Findings lend support for the perspective that the integration of refugees is shaped by the resources and programs made available through their entry statuses.
- There are significant gender inequalities in economic outcomes among refugees
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