{"title":"New Canadians Working amid a New Normal: Recent Immigrant Wage Penalties in Canada during the COVID-19 Pandemic.","authors":"Danielle Lamb, Rupa Banerjee, Talia Emanuel","doi":"10.3138/cpp.2022-003","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>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.</p>","PeriodicalId":56148,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Public Policy-Analyse De Politiques","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10234262/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Canadian Public Policy-Analyse De Politiques","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2022-003","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
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.
期刊介绍:
Canadian Public Policy is Canada"s foremost journal examining economic and social policy. The aim of the journal is to stimulate research and discussion of public policy problems in Canada. It is directed at a wide readership including decision makers and advisers in business organizations and governments, and policy researchers in private institutions and universities. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of many public policy issues, the contents of each volume aim to be representative of various disciplines involved in public policy issues. This quarterly journal publishes interdisciplinary articles in English or French. Abstracts are provided in both languages.