A Study of the Labour Market Outcomes of Married Immigrant Women in Canada

Abstract

Using 2006 Census data, this paper investigates three labour market outcomes and their determinants for both Canadian-born and immigrant married women aged 30-50. The three labour market outcomes are labour force participation, employment status and full-time full-year work status. The factors that determine the labour market outcomes for both Canadian-born and immigrant married women include the presence of children, other family income and educational attainment. Additionally, immigration characteristics are taken into account when analysis is done for the immigrant women. The results suggest that Canadian-born women have better labour market outcomes than their foreign-born counterparts and that the magnitude of the positive effect of educational attainment on female labour market outcomes is larger for the native-born Canadian women than for the immigrants. Moreover, immigrant women participate more in the Canadian labour market the longer they live in Canada. Comparisons are also done between the immigrant women born in different regions. The results show that women born in the U.S./Europe participate the most in the Canadian labour market, while women born in Asia participate the least. In addition, the magnitude of the same determinant varies across different groups of immigrant women, such as other family income and knowledge of Canadian official languages.