Children of immigrants face challenges beyond first generation, study finds

THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - A new study suggests second-generation Canadians, particularly visible minority males, face many of the same challenges their immigrant parents did.

The Statistics Canada study compares the earnings of young men and women born in Canada to immigrant parents with those of their peers with Canadian-born parents.

Taking education levels into account, the study found that young women with two immigrant parents had significantly higher earnings than young women with Canadian-born parents.

But young men had no such advantage-in fact, some visible minority men with two immigrant parents appeared to have a significant disadvantage in earnings compared to their peers with Canadian-born parents.

The study looks at 17-to 29-year-olds during two six-year periods between 1996 and 2004.

It says roughly half of women's advantage in hourly earnings was due to geographic distribution.

Three-quarters of young Canadians with two immigrant parents were concentrated in Ontario and British Columbia, and more than three-quarters lived in large urban centres.

In contrast, half of their counterparts with Canadian-born parents lived in less economically prosperous regions such as Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. And about 60 per cent lived in smaller cities, small towns and rural areas.

The agency says a large part of the annual earnings advantage among young women with immigrant parents was also because they were less likely to have been married or had children.

The study says visible minority status had no bearing on women's earnings, but it had a large impact on those of men.

Visible minority men born to immigrants in Canada earned significantly less than young men with Canadian-born parents.

But the earnings of second-generation men who were not visible minorities were no different from those of men with Canadian-born parents. In fact, the study found some evidence suggesting that the earnings of those with one immigrant parent might be higher.

© The Canadian Press, 2007