New Canadians Working amid a New Normal

Recent Immigrant Wage Penalties in Canada during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11969367
AutoresDanielle Lamb (0000-0003-1526-9793, Toronto Metropolitan University, autor de correspondencia), R Banerjee (0000-0003-1987-8449, Toronto Metropolitan University), Talia Emanuel (Toronto Metropolitan University)
Año2022
Volumen48
NúmeroS1
Páginas60-78
Fecha de publicación2022-05-25
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCanadian Public Policy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0317-0861 • E-ISSN: 1911-9917
EditorialUniversity of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3138/cpp.2022-003
PMID38629967
OpenAlexW4281484939
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas27

The global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has exposed and arguably intensified many existing inequalities. This analysis explores the relationship between recent immigrant earnings and the pandemic. Specifically, we attempt to empirically answer the question "Has the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated (or mitigated) recent immigrant-non-immigrant employment and wage gaps?" We find that the pandemic did not change the labour force activity profile of recent or long-term immigrants. Moreover, the pandemic did not disproportionately disadvantage recent immigrants' earnings. In fact, recent immigrant men who were employed during the COVID-19 crisis experienced a small but statistically significant earnings premium. This was insufficient, however, to overcome the overall earnings discount associated with being a recent immigrant. In addition, we find that the recent immigrant COVID-19 earnings boost is observable only at and below the median of the earnings distribution. We also use Heckman selection correction to attempt to adjust for unobserved sample selection into employment during the pandemic. The fact that COVID-19 has not worsened recent immigrant earnings gaps should not overshadow the large, recent immigrant earnings disparities that existed before the pandemic and continue to exist regardless of the COVID-19 crisis

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Demographic economics · Disadvantage · Disease · Earnings · Economics · Immigration · Inequality · Infectious disease (medical specialty · Labour economics · Pandemic · Political science · Wage · COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts · Employment and Welfare Studies · Medicine · Migration and Labor Dynamics