Toronto • May 28-29, 2010 • Student Day and Workshops: May 27
Paper: Language literacy and labour market outcomes among recent Canadian immigrants
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Session : 11. Protecting vulnerable workers (2/2)
Day/Time: Saturday at 11:15
Room: St. David Room, 3rd Floor
Objectives:
Immigrants are an increasingly important part of the Canadian labour market. The objectives of this paper were to examine the impact that English and French language proficiency had on labour market outcomes among a recent cohort of immigrants to Canada - in particular employment in occupations with higher physical demands, and occupations with lower skill levels, than those worked before coming to Canada.
Methods:
This study utilized data from the Longitudinal Survey of immigrants to Canada, a cohort of immigrants to Canada followed for four years after their arrival. For both studies, we restricted our sample to those respondents who had worked before immigrating, and who were working when re-interviewed at two (N approx 4,300) or four (N approx 4,200) years after arrival in Canada. A further restriction in our examination of overqualification was to limit our sample to respondents with secondary education or higher. Regression models then explored the associations between language proficiency and each labour market outcome, after adjustment for a variety of other personal and immigration-related characteristics (e.g. age, applicant status, country of origin, marital status, claimant category).
Results:
There was a step graded relationship between lower levels of English language proficiency and an increased likelihood of being employed in occupations with higher physical demands (OR ranging from 1.94 to 5.08, all confidence intervals above one). Adjustment for personal and immigrant-related characteristics attenuated this relationship, although in our fully adjusted model a significant gradient still remained. Similar results were obtained when examining over-qualification, with respondents with lower levels of language proficiency more likely to be employed in jobs that under-utilized their educational obtainment.
Conclusions:
Poorer English and French language proficiency was associated with sub-optimal labour market outcomes in this representative cohort of recent Canadian Immigrants. Low English and French language proficiency may also increase the risk of workplace injury when combined with hazardous workplace environment. Currently, no structured information on occupational health and safety or worker rights is provided to immigrants when they arrive in Canada. Based on our results we suggest more needs to be done to ensure vulnerable groups of immigrant workers are able to access the Canadian labour market.
