Well-educated recent immigrants to Canada appear to have more difficulty finding employment in Montreal than in any other large metropolitan centre, according to a study of the latest census figures.
While the study of census employment figures by Jack Jedwab, executive director of the Association for Canadian Studies, found that different cities presented different challenges, when it comes to new immigrants finding jobs it was Montreal that had the bleakest overall picture.
In several other cities, however, the employment picture varied significantly depending on whether someone was from a visible minority and their particular ethnic background.
"As to the most recent immigrants (arrived between 2001 and 2006) with university degrees, it is in Montreal that the groups have the highest rate of unemployment," Jedwab wrote.
"However, the gaps in levels of employment between white and non-white immigrants are not as significant in Montreal (and) are not as wide as they are in Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary.
"In other words, (while) Montreal appears to be a more difficult place to secure employment for the most educated immigrants, it does not seem to be more of a problem for immigrants on the basis of their skin colour than it is in other major immigrant-receiving cities."
The study comes a few days after Statistics Canada issued new census figures showing that overall, the employment rate for immigrants to Canada was better in 2006 than it was in 2001. The figures dealt only with employment rates and not income figures.
"Every group seems to have improved slightly as the economy has improved from 2001 to 2006," Jedwab said.
However, Jedwab's study shows job outlook for immigrants can vary considerably from city to city.
Looking at the census figures for a control group of immigrants between the ages of 35 and 44 with university degrees, Jedwab found Montreal had the highest unemployment rate among major metropolitan areas - 14.1 per cent for those from a visible minority compared with 10.4 per cent for immigrants who weren't.
However, when Jedwab broke the results down by ethnic group, he found the rates of unemployment varied substantially from one group to the next. While the unemployment rate was 20.6 per cent for Arabs, 17.9 per cent for Koreans and 17.7 per cent for Latin Americans, it was only 5.8 per cent for Filipinos and 3.7 per cent for those from southeast Asia.
South Asians in Montreal posted an unemployment rate of 13.9 per cent, while the rate for black immigrants was 13.7 per cent.
Across the board, the unemployment rate in Montreal was higher for each ethnic group than it was in the five other major cities studied.
In Edmonton, what stood out was the difference in the unemployment rate between immigrants from visible and non-
visible minorities, Jedwab said.
Again looking at the same cohort, the unemployment rate among visible minorities was 6.3 per cent while the rate among those who aren't visible minorities was only 1.1 per cent - the largest gap between visible and non-visible minorities among the six major cities studied.
The highest unemployment rates in Edmonton were among Arabs (12.3 per cent) and west Asians (12.5 per cent), followed by South Asians (7.7 per cent), blacks (7.1 per cent), Chinese (6.1 per cent), southeast Asians (5.3 per cent), Latin American (5.1 per cent), Koreans (five per cent) and Filipinos (4.6 per cent)
In Calgary, where the gap in the unemployment rate between visible and non-visible minorities was 2.4 per cent, the group with the highest unemployment rate of 10.3 per cent was west Asian. The lowest unemployment rate, 1.5 per cent, was among Latin Americans.
In Ottawa, where the visible-non-visible minority gap in employment was the lowest among the six cities at 1.7 per cent, the highest unemployment rate, 15.4 per cent, was for Korean immigrants. The lowest, 3.5 per cent, was for Filipino immigrants.
In Vancouver, where the visible-non-visible minority gap was 2.3 per cent, the highest unemployment was among Korean immigrants (11.1 per cent) followed closely by west Asian immigrants (10 per cent). The lowest unemployment rate was for Filipino immigrants (four per cent).
In Toronto, the visible-non visible minority gap was 1.9 per cent. The highest unemployment was among west Asian immigrants (8.1 per cent) followed closely by Arab immigrants (eight per cent). The lowest unemployment was among Filipino immigrants (4.1 per cent and southeast Asian immigrants (4.6 per cent).
Source : The Gazette (Montreal) May 20, 2008
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