Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/101836 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 8407
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We use the confidential files of the 1991-2006 Canadian Census, combined with information from O*NET on the skill requirements of jobs, to explore whether Canadian immigrant women behave as secondary workers, remaining marginally attached to the labour market and experiencing little career progression over time. Our results show that the labor market patterns of female immigrants to Canada do not fit the profile of secondary workers, but rather conform to patterns recently exhibited by married native women elsewhere, with rising participation (and wage assimilation). At best, only relatively uneducated immigrant women in unskilled occupations may fit the profile of secondary workers, with slow skill mobility and low-status job-traps. Educated immigrant women, on the other hand, experience skill assimilation over time: a reduction in physical strength and an increase in analytical skills required in their jobs relative to those of natives.
Subjects: 
skill assimilation
labour market outcomes of immigrant women
wage gaps
female labor force participation
Canadian migration
JEL: 
J01
J61
F22
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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