More cheery news

[sheherazade]

Well-paying jobs elude minorities born in Canada

 

Racial bias is the reason, says CLC study, which offers French riots as a warning

 

MICHAEL VALPY

 

TORONTO -- Canadian-born visible minorities face the highest barriers to steady, well-paying jobs of any group in the country, a circumstance expected to worsen as huge numbers of non-white young people enter the labour market, says a Canadian Labour Congress study to be released today.

 

The CLC bluntly describes the situation as racial discrimination and suggests parallels to the underlying causes of riots last autumn by jobless and alienated visible-minority young people in the suburbs of Paris and other French cities.

 

"As Canadians, individually and collectively, we must comes to grips with the harsh realization that every day we are straying further and further away from our goals of equality," said Hassan Yussuff, the congress's secretary-treasurer.

 

The study, by Leslie Cheung of Simon Fraser University, says the workplace inequality cannot be explained by education disparities because native-born non-whites are better educated as a whole than native-born whites and immigrants.

 

"We're educated in Canada. We have the same education [as Canadian-born whites]. Language skills are not an issue. It can't be called a 'catch-up' event. We've already caught up," Ms. Cheung said in an interview. "There's no other explanation than discrimination."

 

Ms. Cheung's paper, Racial Status and Employment Outcomes -- to be posted today on CLC's website -- says the average annual earnings for native-born visible minorities ($21,983 in 2000) lags more than $3,000 behind earnings for immigrant visible minorities and $8,000 behind earnings for Canadian-born whites.

 

Even worse, the earnings gap between native-born visible minorities and other groups actually widened over the preceding five years, Ms. Cheung said.

 

Visible minorities do not include aboriginal people; they are included in the data for whites. They generally have high rates of unemployment and low incomes, but because they are a comparatively small group, their impact on data for whites is small.

 

Ms. Cheung's study also says the native-born visible minority group is more likely to include blacks, Japanese and people who have multiple ethnic origins than the immigrant visible minority group is.

 

In 2000, according to Ms. Leung's research, the unemployment rate for Canadian-born visible minorities was 10.7 per cent, compared with 9.1 per cent for immigrant visible minorities and 7.1 per cent for immigrant and native-born whites.

 

The unemployment rates for people aged 15 to 24 show comparable gaps -- 15.5 per cent for native-born visible minorities, 14.8 per cent for all immigrant young people (75 per cent of all immigrants to Canada today are visible minorities) and 13.3 per cent Canadian-born whites.

 

But because non-white families tend to have more children than white families have, according to Ms. Cheung's study, the proportion of visible minority members in the 15-to-24 cohort will expand significantly in the next few years.

 

It is this group that concerns the CLC, and sparked the comparison by one congress official to disaffected young people in France, most of them of North African descent and pushed socially and economically to the margins of French society.

 

Ms. Cheung finds that Canadian-born visible minority workers, unlike immigrant visible minority workers, are overrepresented in part-time and temporary jobs even though as a group they have the highest proportion of people in the 25-to-44 age group with a bachelor's degree or higher -- 37.5 per cent, compared with 31.5 per cent who are immigrant visible minorities and 19.1 per cent of native-born whites.

 

Shades of unemployment

 

The Canadian Labour Congress says Canadian-born visible minorities are encountering the highest barriers to finding steady work at decent wages - a worrying situation as large numbers of young people from that population seek to enter the work force.

 

Unemployment rates by group

 

Arab/West Asian 14%

Black 11.5%

Latin American 10.5%

Southeast Asian 9.8%

South Asian 9.6%

Korean 8.7%

Chinese 8.4%

Multiple** 8.3%

Other 8.1%

Japanese 6.1%

Filipino 5.6%

 

SOURCE: CENSUS CANADA 2001, STATSCAN 2003

source

[Castro]

Oh Canada how I pity thee. A great place to study, to raise a family but not a place to spread your wings and be all that you can be. That is reserved for the land of the free and the home of the brave. Sure it's a bloody cruel and violent empire but one that's oozing with opportunities for minorities. Indeed a dichotomy. And though I wasn't born in Texas, I came here as fast as I could.

[sheherazade]

Is that based on opinion or stats?

[Castro]

Stats? :rolleyes:

[sheherazade]

What's wrong immigrant?

[Maf Kees]

@ Sheherazade.

[Castro]

Originally posted by sheherazade:

What's wrong immigrant?

You're so sweet. I purposely rolled my eyes just to get a violent reaction from you. Alas, I failed.

 

Mine was obviously an opinion and this article you posted does not surprise me at all. I still have family and friends in Tanana so I am kept abreast of how bad the employment is for young, highly educated immigrants. I'm not talking about an undergraduate degree but advanced degrees and specializations worth gold in the US. I don't know what the problem is but I'm sure institutional racism has a lot to do with it. Instead of fight and make it right, I chose to flee south. In hindsight, it was not a bad decision.

[- Femme -]

I am kept abreast of how bad the employment is for young, highly educated immigrants. I'm not talking about an undergraduate degree but advanced degrees and specializations worth gold in the US.

Walahi, its not just that. It's hard for immigrants and (black, muslim women like moi) to even find a job that pays minimum wage. The insult of it - even Micky D's rejects you. I had to search for about a year to find my job - a sales position to help me while I'm at school. Now, I've had PLENTY of interviews, but the hiring part was the tough part. Shidh.

 

You can't even get a job where there is no experienence or brainwork needed. I think it's better in T.O and Ottawo, but Vancity is bloody ******. :mad:

 

That's why I'm tailgating out of here when I get my degree in hand. How does Malaysia sound? :cool:

[Castro]

^ Won't you come down to the dirty south? I'm shopping for a second wife, see.

 

I hear ya Kooley. And no one knows Vancity like I do. I drove a bloody cab there. If you ain't a Patel with a convenience store or a doctor called Wong, your behind can't even work at the 7-11. I remember filling out applications for a security guard position or gas station attendant and they'd ask me for a resume. Bloody hell. Can they even read the bloody thing if I got them one? I even tried selling encyclopedia and quit on the first day. No one wants to buy a $2,000 50-volume, two-ton worth of books full of out-dated information. After many days and nights of doom and gloom it finally occured to me that I didn't belong there. I was far too alive, far too skilled and far too black to ever make a decent living there.

[- Femme -]

^ You can buy me when you pay off my student loans.

 

I've applied to at least 50 places, stupidh me, I always gave it to the customer service people. Good advice: Whatever your applying for; always give it directly to the manager if you can. At least when you get rejected, you'll know it hadn't been misplaced of thrown out.

 

Some people are just xaasideen and WILL throw your application and resume in the garbage. Most do it because they want their friend or family member to get the job.

[sheherazade]

Lol at violent reaction. I had a cr*p day at work today. An imbecile talking down and patronising me. It was either blow up or hold my breath and I chose to hold my breath.

 

And smile. Always smile.

 

For now.

 

Someone once told me that it's a good thing to be underestimated cause the look on peoples faces when they realise whom they're really dealing with is effing priceless. I look forward to it, I do. Please God make it very soon.

 

Tonight I decided to give up on the UK. There is only so much time u can devote to something before u become it's lil biyach.

 

Really I'm through.

 

My friend who's taking her previous employers to a tribunal just said to me: remember what u told me when I was having problems at work, leave emotions aside and gather enough info(in writing) to screw them with. Ah, friends.

 

Yeah and I do remember saying that. Practice what I preach and all that. Tomorrow's going to be the start of my secret campaign. Bwahahaha.

 

Malaysia doesn't sound half bad, K. If only the blokes have stopped making that sucking sound at foreign women. There is no peace it seems. And I already have virus no 3 of 2006. Blah.

 

Smile.