Episodes of Non-Employment Among Immigrants to Canada from Developing Countries

Abstract

Using data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) – we analyze non-employment episodes for immigrants from developing countries and compare their situation to that of immigrants from more developed countries and Canadian-born individuals between 1996 and 2006. The methods used allowed us to draw the following conclusion: significant differences exist between these three groups in the labour market mobility, the average duration of a non-employment episode, and the factors that affect the propensity to exit from a non-employment episode. These differences demonstrate a particular disadvantage for immigrants from developing countries. In fact, they tend to spend more time in non-employment episodes compared to their counterparts from the more developed countries and compared to Canadian-born individuals.

Keywords: immigrants, labour market, developing countries, Canada