Relative Wages of Immigrants and Native-Born Canadians in Four Major Canadian Metropolitan Areas: 1981 to 2006

Abstract

Using data drawn from the Canadian censuses of 1981, 1991 and 2006, this paper shows the trends in the wage gaps between four major metropolitan areas (Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver) and the rest of Canada, for both immigrants and native-born Canadians. The results show that immigrants have benefited less than non-immigrants from living in those metropolitan areas during the last thirty years. In addition, those wage gaps have been increasing sing the 1980s, and they are always larger for males and females. The paper also observes that the wage gap in Montreal is larger than in other areas of Canada, and that it is smaller in Calgary than in the other three metropolitan areas.