Immigrant composition and wages in Canada

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between immigrant-composition and wages of different occupations and different industries in Canada. It reports the effects of change in proportion of immigrants on the wage level in 1996 for both male and female Canadians and immigrants. First all immigrants are considered homogeneous and thereafter they are distinguished according to a wide array of criterion and a full spectrum of results are presented. These results suggest that for immigrants the aggregate relationship of income with immigrant composition is fairly small, unless they are subcategorised into specific groups (e.g. non-white immigrants, immigration after 1990). The corresponding wage penalties for Canadians are more uniform across the different subgroup specifications and decomposition of the data.