Income Trajectories of Latin American Refugee and Non-Refugee Immigrant Workers in Canada
Monitoring labour market outcomes of immigrants such as their earnings over time is crucial to pinpointing a successful economic integration. Over the past decades, thousands of Latin American immigrants have been admitted to Canada as permanent residents.
Using a sample of tax filers drawn from the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB), the author explored the income trajectories of 60,060 male and female Latin American refugee and non-refugee workers aged 25-54, who immigrated during the period from 2000-2009. Employment earnings of male and female Latino workers were observed at three tax reporting years: 2010, 2014, and 2018. Six immigrant intake class groups were examined: economic class principal applicants, economic class spouses or dependents, family class, government-assisted refugees (GARs), privately sponsored refugees (PSRs) and landed-in-Canada (LICs) refugees.
The study found that, between 2010 and 2018, the average employment earnings of workers grew by approximately one quarter of their initial amount. Notable income improvements, however, were not seen across the board. Economic class principal applicants, as well as their spouses and dependents, had the strongest earning trajectories while landed-in Canada refugees and family class immigrants displayed moderate ones.
Government-assisted refugees and privately sponsored refugees ranked at bottom levels across the three tax year observation points, having the lowest starting points and the shallowest earning trajectories. Multivariate analysis using cross-classifications found that, controlling for other covariates such as gender, university education and/or region of admission, immigrant intake class was a strong predictor of employment incomes. Although average incomes increased over time for all groups, government-assisted refugees and privately sponsored refugees experienced the greatest income penalties of the six immigrant intake classes examined. The march towards economic integration, thus, appears to be faster for some Latino immigrant workers and slower for others.
Paper also available at: https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/sgmzu
Monitoring labour market outcomes of immigrants such as their earnings over time is crucial to pinpointing a successful economic integration. Over the past decades, thousands of Latin American immigrants have been admitted to Canada as permanent residents.
Using a sample of tax filers drawn from the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB), the author explored the income trajectories of 60,060 male and female Latin American refugee and non-refugee workers aged 25-54, who immigrated during the period from 2000-2009. Employment earnings of male and female Latino workers were observed at three tax reporting years: 2010, 2014, and 2018. Six immigrant intake class groups were examined: economic class principal applicants, economic class spouses or dependents, family class, government-assisted refugees (GARs), privately sponsored refugees (PSRs) and landed-in-Canada (LICs) refugees.
The study found that, between 2010 and 2018, the average employment earnings of workers grew by approximately one quarter of their initial amount. Notable income improvements, however, were not seen across the board. Economic class principal applicants, as well as their spouses and dependents, had the strongest earning trajectories while landed-in Canada refugees and family class immigrants displayed moderate ones.
Government-assisted refugees and privately sponsored refugees ranked at bottom levels across the three tax year observation points, having the lowest starting points and the shallowest earning trajectories. Multivariate analysis using cross-classifications found that, controlling for other covariates such as gender, university education and/or region of admission, immigrant intake class was a strong predictor of employment incomes. Although average incomes increased over time for all groups, government-assisted refugees and privately sponsored refugees experienced the greatest income penalties of the six immigrant intake classes examined. The march towards economic integration, thus, appears to be faster for some Latino immigrant workers and slower for others.
Paper also available at: https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/sgmzu
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