Visible Minority Wage Gaps for Highly Educated Immigrant and Canadian-born Workers with Canadian Degrees

Abstract

Canada is an important immigration country and more and more residents belong to different visible minority groups. This paper uses the 2011 National Household Survey to investigate the wage gap between visible minority groups and non-visible minority workers, focusing on highly educated immigrants and non-immigrants. All individuals in the sample have at least a Canadian bachelor degree. The visible minority workers are divided into the categories of Black, Chinese, South Asian, and Rest of the World. The paper finds that on average, immigrants earn less than non-immigrants. Comparing the genders, the visible minority wage gaps are smaller for females than for males. Among the visible minority groups, Black males are the group that suffers the most from wage disadvantage, regardless of their immigration status and the number of years since immigration. For the other visible minority groups and for the females, there are greater wage disadvantages among immigrants than among non-immigrants.