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Immigrants face gap on wages

As analysts dissect the data to figure out why it is that newcomers to Canada these days are having a much harder time than previous generations of immigrants, they’re bumping up against an uncomfortable answer.

OTTAWA — As analysts dissect the data to figure out why it is that newcomers to Canada these days are having a much harder time than previous generations of immigrants, they’re bumping up against an uncomfortable answer.

Discrimination, they say reluctantly, can’t be completely ruled out.

For 30 years, the landing for newcomers to Canada has become steadily rougher.

In the 1980s, the source countries for many of Canada’s immigrants were in flux, shifting away from traditional English-speaking or European countries, and more towards Asia, says social scientist Arthur Sweetman at McMaster University in Hamilton.

Language and cultural barriers were, and continue to be, a set-back for immigrants hoping to close the earnings gap with Canadian-born workers, he says.

In the 1990s, immigrants were hit extra hard by the recession.

The widening gap of the early 2000s can be explained mainly by the dot-com bust.

Canada had imported large quantities of technology workers during the boom, who were left high and dry when the market suddenly turned, according to Statistics Canada’s Garnett Picot.

But the erosion has continued since then, and there is no single obvious explanation, Sweetman says.

Part of the answer is that Canadian employers are often suspicious of foreign credentials and experience.

So immigrants who, on paper, look equivalent to Canadians in education and background, aren’t valued as highly, says Mikal Skuterud at the University of Waterloo.

And part of the answer is that immigrants don’t have the networks and links to good jobs that Canadian-born workers have established, Skuterud said.

So there’s a growing and disproportionate number of immigrants concentrated in low-quality jobs, he has found.

But Skuterud has also found that the wage disparity with Canadian-born workers persists much longer for visible minority immigrants, lasting into the second and even third generations.

While he’s skeptical about studies that quickly blame racist employers, he says the question can’t be dismissed easily.

“There is some discrimination,” he said.