THE CHANGING LABOR-MARKET POSITION OF CANADIAN IMMIGRANTS

This paper uses pooled 1971, 1981, and 1986 Canadian census data to evaluate the extent to which (1) the earnings of Canadian immigrants at the time of immigration fall short of the earnings of comparable Canadian-born individuals, and (2) immigrants' earnings grow more rapidly over time than those of the Canadian born. Variations in the labour market assimilation of immigrants according to their gender and country of origin are also analysed. The results suggest that recent immigrant cohorts have had more difficulty being assimilated into the Canadian labour market than earlier ones, an apparent consequence of recent changes in Canadian immigration policy, labour market discrimination against visible minorities, and the prolonged recession of the early 1980s.