Family Class Immigrants to Canada. 1981–84: Part 1*
| Published date | 01 June 1988 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.1988.tb00620.x |
| Date | 01 June 1988 |
| Author | T. J. Samuel |
Family Class Immigrants to Canada.
1981
-84:
Part
1
*
:
Labour Force Activity Aspects
**
T.
J.
SAMUEL***
The Auditor General of Canada in his report for the fiscal year ending in March 1983
pointed out that the Family Class immigrant inflow to Canada, in recent years, had been
quite significant and the Employment and Immigration Canada ‘should evaluate the
selection criteria for Family Class immigrants and spouses to determine if they ensure
that these immigrants will be able to become successfully established in Canada’.’ Since
there were no specific studies exclusively on the Family Class, it was decided to conduct a
telephone interview survey of a random sample of 1,400 Family Class immigrants who
had entered Canada from April 1981 to March 1984 inclusive. The sampling design
consisted of a random systematic selection of records stratified by age, sex, location and
year of entry to Canada. For the purposes of the survey, a Family Class immigrant was
defined as a person 18 to 65 years of age who had been admitted to Canada during the
above period. It was undertaken in five major Canadian metropolitan areas
-
Toronto,
Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver after a pilot study was completed in the first
two cities. Interviews were completed in the Fall of 1985 in seven languages: English,
French, Punjabi, Cantonese, Portuguese, Spanish and Tagalog. In order to complete the
interviews, total calls dialed were: 15,866. The 95 per cent confidence intervals adjusted
for population for the five cities where interviews were conducted varied in the range of
plus or minus 5.4 per cent to 6.8 per cent. After using appropriate weighting procedures
the survey data were merged with administrative data.
Although the primary goal of Family Class immigration is social2, the majority of such
immigrants sooner or later participate in the economic activity of the country. Initially
their labour force participation rate is low since they are destined to a close relative who
has guaranteed to support them for up to 10 years. Therefore, when they decide to join the
labour force it is by choice and not by necessity.
In this paper the labour force aspects of the adaptation of family class immigrants is
looked at. A clear indication of the economic adaptation is the immigrant’s labour force
participation rate and the incidence and duration of unemployment over the twelve
months preceding the survey. The level of earnings reported by Family Class immigrants
*
The views contained in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily represent
those
of
Employment and Immigration Canada.
Part
2
on
‘Some Aspects of Social Adaptation’ will be published
in
the forthcoming September
issue.
**
Employment and Immigration Canada, Ottawa (Canada).
171
is a direct measure of their ‘comfort’ in their new country. Employment and earnings are
two measurable indices of economic adaptation. Ability to be employed demonstrates
the immigrants’ success in making a contribution that is valued in modem society.
Earnings,
on
the other hand, give them the power to participate in almost every aspect of
society
-
as consumers, investors, tax payers and the like.
PROFILE OF THE SAMPLE
Demographically two out of five in the sample were male and 40 per cent were 35 years of
age
or
older. There were more widowed women than men, more single males than
females. The major mother tongues of the members of the sample were: English
(22
per
cent), Punjabi (14 per cent), Cantonese (1
3
per cent) and Tagalog (1
1
per cent). Over 69
per cent of the males and 64 per cent of females reported good
or
excellent spoken
English. Only
1 1
to
12
per cent claimed the same fluency in French. In terms of the area of
last permanent residence,
2
1
per cent came from
S.
E. Asia, 18 per cent from Europe, 17
per cent from South Asia, 17 per cent from the Caribbean and Latin America and 15 per
cent from ChinalTaiwan. In terms of education close to a quarter had more than 14 years
of schooling and almost half had 9 to
13
years of schooling.
To provide the proper setting, before examining the results of the survey it will be
useful to look at the findings of previous surveys in which the Family Class immigrants
were part of.
Though a number of statistical analyses relating to the sources, occupations and skills
of Family Class immigrants have been conducted, and the Family Class was included in
two major longitudinal studies conducted by Employment and Immigration Canada, at
no time prior to this survey was the Family Class selected exclusively for a study.
However, data on the labour force experience of Family Class immigrants can be
obtained from mainly three sources: The 1969-74 Longitudinal Survey on the Economic
and Social Adaptation of Immigrants3, the 1976-77 Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants4
and
a
study
based
on administrative data resulting from an integration of
EIC‘s
Longitudinal Labour Force Data Base and the Landed Immigrant Data Base.s
Apart from these, administrative data provides information on the labour force
intentions and occupations of such immigrants. According to administrative data only
less than two fifths of Family Class immigrants intended to join the labour force. The
most important occupations to which Family Class immigrants belonged in early eighties
were
:
Clerical, Service, Product fabrication, Construction trades, Farming and
Horticulture and Health and Social Sciences.6
The 1969-74 Longitudinal Study of Immigrants’ found that most Family Class labour
market entrants tended to find employment within a reasonable period of time and
remained employed. The incidence of Family Class unemployment tended to exceed that
of Independent immigrants and lasted somewhat longer; it was probably not much
greater. Though the unemployment rate of Family Class tended to follow a similar
decline over time to the drop in the Independent class rate, after six months in Canada
they still had an unemployment rate close to double the rate for all immigrants.
Those Family Class work-seekers who had occupational qualification before coming to
Canada rarely found employment in their expected occupations. Only one third of them
did
so
compared to two thirds of the Independent ones. By and large, most immigrants
entered occupations at relatively lower status levels than that to which they had been
accustomed. But most would contend that they enjoyed relatively better earnings and
working conditions than they would have in their former land. Over time some of them
172
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