Filipinos find work faster in Canada

By Tavia Grant

Immigrants born in Southeast Asia, particularly those from the Philippines, tend to be best integrated into the Canadian work force while those born in Africa have the most difficulties entering the labour market, a government study suggested Wednesday.

Of adult immigrants, even very recent immigrants from the Philippines had a jobless rate that was close to the Canadian-born population, Statistics Canada said. By contrast, the unemployment rate among very recent African-born immigrants was more than four times higher than the Canadian-born rate.

The study comes as the country is grappling with increasingly acute labour shortages. Canada has the second-highest proportion of immigrants among Western nations, and many provinces are trying to attract newcomers to help fill the gap.

Statscan's study used data from 2006 labour force surveys to determine which groups tend to find work fastest, where they go and the gender differences in the immigrant labour force. It did not give reasons for why there are discrepancies, though the agency will release a study on the link between immigrants' education and labour market outcomes in the spring.

It found that "only those born in Southeast Asia had unemployment rates, employment rates and participation rates that were more or less on par with the core working-age Canadian-born population."

Both men and women born in the Philippines, in particular, had strong results. Filipino-born very recent immigrants had an unemployment rate of 5.4 per cent, only slightly higher than the Canadian-born average of 4.9 per cent.

Those born elsewhere in Asia, including the Middle East, as well as people born in Europe, Latin America, and Africa all had higher unemployment rates and lower employment rates in 2006 than their Canadian-born counterparts, the report said.

Immigrants born in Africa had problems in the labour market, regardless of when they had landed. In 2006, the estimated 70,000 very recent African-born immigrants had an unemployment rate of 20.8 per cent, the highest among all immigrant groups.

The face of immigrants in Canada has been tilting in the past few decades towards more Asian countries rather than mainly European countries.

People born in Asia, including the Middle East, were the largest single group of immigrants that had settled in Canada as of 2006, with most born in China, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam, Philippines, Iran or Pakistan.

Immigrant men are much more likely to work than immigrant women.

Women from abroad are also much less likely to work than women born here. "The study found a greater disparity between immigrant and Canadian-born women," Statscan said. "Unemployment was high for almost all immigrant women, regardless of where they were born and when they landed in Canada."

The jobless rate for very recent immigrant women was nearly three times that of Canadian women while their participation and employment rates significantly lower, the study said.

The vast majority of immigrants settle in Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec.

In B.C., Asian-born and European-born recent and established immigrants had labour market outcomes that were comparable to those of Canadian-born people in the province.

In Quebec, very recent and recent immigrants born in Latin America, Asia and Africa had unemployment rates two to four times higher than that of Canadian-born Quebeckers. Recent and established immigrants born in Europe, however, had jobless rates that were comparable with their Canadian-born counterparts.

Reprinted from globeandmail.com and relayed to goodnewspilipinas.com by filipino readers in canada