Latin Women workforce in Canada, some features

Jorge Cruz Osorio, Toronto, 2022/06/13

Program: Bridge to Employment in Services for Immigrant Population- Mennonite New Life Center

Course: Introduction to Immigration and Settlement: PHD. Katerina Belazelkoska

 

Abstract

Canada has changed its policies towards immigration in the last decades, those new outlines has provoked that the immigrant flux, one of the more visible has been education background which swift radically, but there is another one, now there are more women than men entry to Canada.

Because of the above mentioned the author want to shed some light on how that trend is reflected on the Latin women immigration.

Key words: Latino American women, immigration, Canada.

 

Latin America immigration to Canada started in the 60’s last century up to now. In the last census (2016) there were “674,640 permanent residents with a Latin American background” ¹. In other words, those numbers reflect people with a regular status. Although the quantity of Latin Americans who step on Canada land is bigger, for example the total temporary foreign worker in 2020 amounts to 326,116, where 19,645 come from Latin America ². And that year can be considered a low one due to Covid pandemic.

Regular immigration movement is led by males ³. If we think on the type of jobs composition of TFW in 2020 we can see that the difference is more than four times bigger for males: 2,900 females and 16,745 males ⁴ which confirm the movement trends world-wide.

However, if we check PR status, there is intriguing data, the gender composition is bigger for females than males in terms of PR. Due to this, I will try to explore this phenomenon.

Methodology

The main focus on this essay is Latin American women that has arrived with a Permanent Resident visa, as the Statistic Canada showed on their researches.

In this essay I will basically use secondary sources, and whom mainly did their research on the 2016 Census data.

In other words, I will review some authors who has studied the Latin America immigration waves, but I will use some other information produced by Statistic Canada.

  Latin American flow

According to Fernando Mata ⁵, there have been five moments of movements from LA to Canada. The first one is from 1965 to 1972; it is called the lead wave. Most of them were descended from European immigrants to certain countries in LA. The second wave is named Andean (1973-1975), the majority of them were amnesty seekers, in other words, they took advantage of a government immigration amnesty issued 1973. The third one has been named coup refugees, people escaping from military juntas, especially in the south of South America; this runs from 1973 to 1985. The fourth was led by people from Central America, fleeing from civil wars down there; they titled the Central America wave, their momentum was 1983-1995. The last wave, from 1995 to 2014, is interesting because most of them were professionals and technicians.

Let’s take a look at this last one. Although the top movement happens during the years pointed above, it is still running there is a constant flow; for example, students come to take two or more years' span courses, and then apply for PR status. And lately there have been people from Venezuela, Oil experts fired by Chavez or running away from the failing State -they can be considered economic immigrants-, family reunion, and asylum seekers.

Source: Fernando Mata (2021) The Immigrant Waves from Latin American to Canada: A Look at Immigration and Census Statistics.

December 5, at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41799574

 

We can see a chart which shows us the reason for that change of country for LA people from 1981 to 2016. On it we see that family reunion is the main source of migration, followed by economic reasons, and lastly, refugees. Of course, it is a long period of movement, where, as I have mentioned, what compels them to search for living in Canada has different causes. Due to it, it is possible that in some years ahead we could see a change of pattern, especially diminishing asylum seekers

 

In this next chart we can see the flow by range of years and county of origin.

Source: Fernando Mata (2021) The Immigrant Waves from Latin American to Canada: A Look at Immigration and Census Statistics.

December 5, at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41799574

The main feature is the origin flip, now the bigger quantity comes from South America, while during the 80's and the beginning of this century was from Central America. But those are not the only changes. The following two charts have some interesting characteristics. If we check origin and education level, we could see other changes. For example, mostly Central America had low formal studies, but since Canada has used the point system for applying professionals, they are the main source of PR. And finally, women are on the top of immigration. We can see those issues on the next charts.

Source: Fernando Mata (2021) The Immigrant Waves from Latin American to Canada: A Look at Immigration and Census Statistics.

December 5, at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41799574

Source: Fernando Mata (2021) The Immigrant Waves from Latin American to Canada: A Look at Immigration and Census Statistics.

December 5, at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41799574

According to Statistic Canada ⁶ “As in the overall population, women make up the majority of Canadians of Latin America origin. In 2001, 51.4% of the Latin American community, compared with 50.9% of the overall population, were female.” And to Beltran-Espitia 7 “According to the 2016 Census, out of 35,151,728 people in Canada, 674.640 were Latin American or of Latin American origin. Among that population, 51.8% were women, and 48.2% were men.” Then, we can spot that there is a growing trend of more females than males.

Briefly, we can see that the overall is composed of two differences among males and females: the former has a lower educational background, Females has 70% of third level (post-secondary or university). And if we review the last movement, they are greatest in quantity, which means more females are arriving in Canada.

  Latino American female

Migration is an invaluable risky action. There is a lot of suffering for migrants and the “world behind” (family, friends, networks, reputation…). As Betran-Espitia ⁷ said: “Integrating into a new culture is not a simple undertaking. It implies the uprooting process, which is difficult and, in many cases, entails a highly emotional component that comes from leaving family and friends, abandoning everything one has known until then and switching from being at home to becoming a newcomer, a stranger.”

When we think about female immigrants, the first thing we face is if there is a risk on the trip, they are having greater threat, they are on the top of it; as it is said by LexisNexis Canada  ⁸  when their  arrived to their new destiny: “Despite the need for skilled professionals to meet labor demands, research suggests that many skilled immigrants face deskilling, downward career mobility, underemployment, unemployment and talent waste. Immigrants may find themselves in low- skilled occupations that are not commensurate to their education and prior experience. Skilled immigrant women also face additional gendered disadvantages, including a disproportionate domestic burden, interrupted careers and gender segmentation in occupations.” But there are so many other risks along their travel: “Female migrants face major risks, including sexual exploitation, trafficking and violence.” ⁹

If there are barriers, threats and violence, why women stroll them:

“Women migrate for diverse reasons, including gender itself. Women may be “pushed” to migrate due to situations like war or violence. Or they are “pulled” for employment, education or family reasons.” ⁸.

In spite of those chances of scary events, the quantity of migrating women has been increasing, looking for a reward at the end: “And women are increasingly migrating on their own, or as the heads of their households. This trend represents a key opportunity for their economic independence and empowerment.” ⁹

Those aspects are part of the “journey” that immigrants lived on their path to a new life. I said migrants because it is a worldwide phenomenon. Now, let’s take a close look at Latin American women in Canada.

I have mentioned earlier that females are tending to migrate in close numbers to males towards the northern nation. Canada as destiny, has been dominated for a change in recent years, there has been a growing female increase up to the point where they have been more than males for several years, something that has been common in most of developed countries. We can check on the two following charts:

Source: Fernando Mata (2021) The Immigrant Waves from Latin American to Canada: A Look at Immigration and Census Statistics.

December 5, at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41799574

Source: Fernando Mata (2021) The Immigrant Waves from Latin American to Canada: A Look at Immigration and Census Statistics.

December 5, at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41799574

We have seen that female professionals are a big piece of the cake; however, there are still an important quantity that does not work on their former expertise. As mentioned, there are still some barriers on the job market, like: licenses for regulated occupations, lack of network, an advanced master of the official languages, and so on. One the chart above, shows us that female professionals are working on their or related area of studies, which could mean that more and more women are getting jobs close to their expertise. For example, Venezuelan females, one of the lastly immigration groups, have the top percentage 44%; and another big percentage on the sales and services (45%).

Source: Government of Canada. “Are the gaps in labor market outcomes between immigrants and their Canadian-born counterparts starting to close?” ⁷

 

Research also has shown us that the longer their stay in Canada, the better jobs, and probably salaries, as we can see on the table, which reaffirm how times easy-going a better quality of life.

  Conclusions

So, we have seen that Latin females, among their counterparts worldwide, have to bear many burdens when they decide to migrate, nevertheless they are growing in quantity; even, they surpass males. Although, I mentioned that this wave is mainly towards developed countries, where females know and/or expect that their human rights are respected by the society as a whole.

Racism and xenophobia is still present on daily life in Canada, in spite of the government efforts. It is not open or direct, but subtle. This means, there is a long way to walk in that sense.

There might be higher efforts related to integration. Licenses and credential recognition have to be reform or looking for paths that ease their acceptance. Probably, one way is increasing the offer of bridging programs, in quantity and diversity.

There has to be more information about the importance of networking. And compel the immigrants to start building it before arrival.

As females are more and growing little by little their quantity in relation to males, new studies would be necessary in view of this developing pattern change.

Last, but not least, integration is a difficult trail, it takes time and sweat, due to this it is important to keep an eye on it. More studies have to be encouraged.

 

References

¹ Ruiz, Wilson (2006) Latin American Canadians. December 14, 2006. Last edited December 28,

202. At https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/latin-americans

² IRCC (2022) 2021 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration. At: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications- manuals/annual-report-parliament-immigration-2021.html

 

³ United Nations (2020) International migration 2019. Wall Chart. At: https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.development.desa.pd/files/files/do cuments/2020/Feb/un_2019_internationalmigration_wallchart.pdf

 

⁴ Government of Canada (2022) Temporary Residents: Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and International Mobility Program (IMP) Work Permit Holders – Monthly IRCC Updates

- Canada - Temporary Foreign Worker Program work permit holders by gender, occupational skill level and year in which permit(s) became effective. At: https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/360024f2-17e9-4558-bfc1- 3616485d65b9/resource/b495be77-19d5-4100-998a-ea6ae873dbd6?inner_span=True

 

⁵ Fernando Mata (2021) The Immigrant Waves from Latin American to Canada: A Look at Immigration and Census Statistics. December 5, at: https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/kn4dy/

 

⁶ Statistic Canada (2007) The Latin American Community in Canada. August 14. At https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-621-x/89-621-x2007008-eng.htm#5

 

⁷ Beltran-Espitia, Monica (2021) Latin American immigrant women in Canada: A gender perspective on integration processes. School of Political Studies. University of Ottawa. https://ruor.uottawa.ca/bitstream/10393/42535/1/Beltran%20Espitia_Monica_2021_researchpap er.pdf

 

⁸ LexisNexis Canada (2021 ) The different immigration experiences of women and men. The Lawyer's Daily. March 08. At https://www.thelawyersdaily.ca/articles/25180/the-different- immigration-experiences-of-women-and-men