tailieunhanh - Immigrant labour market outcomes in Canada: The benefits of addressing wage and employ- ment gaps

State and local governments finance public services primarily through taxes. Nationally, the two biggest taxes are the property and sales tax, which generate more than two- thirds of all state and local tax revenue. Because states rely most on sales and property taxes, and because these taxes place higher effective rates on low- and middle-income households (who spend a greater share of their incomes on housing and purchasing necessities than the wealthy), state and local tax systems are regressive. In Rhode Island, the lowest twenty percent of households pay percent of their income in state and local taxes, the. | RBC RBC ECONOMICS I RESEARCH Exhibit 1 Canadian Labour Force by Immigration Status 2006 Very Recent Immigrants arriving in the past 0-5 years Recent Immigrants arriving in the past 5-10 years Established Immigrants arriving more than 10 years previously Canadian-born Soure Statistics Canada RBC Economics Research Exhibit 2 Unemployment Rates 1981-2006 of labour force unemployed Soure Statistics Canada RBC Economics Research Dawn Desjardins Assistant Chief Economist 416-974-6919 Kirsten Cornelson Economist 416-974-8593 CURRENT ANALYSIS December 2011 Immigrant labour market outcomes in Canada The benefits of addressing wage and employment gaps Summary It is well recognized that immigrants to Canada have higher unemployment rates and lower wages than Canadian-born workers. This report provides an estimate of the size of the aggregate immigrant earnings gap accounting for immigrants stronger profile of observable characteristics and discusses possible reasons for immigrants poorer labour market outcomes. The research to this point suggests that gaps may be due to both genuine skill differences between immigrants and Canadian-born workers and labour market inefficiencies that prevent immigrants from making full use of their skills. In either case there could be room to improve on immigrant outcomes through more extensive language training faster credential recognition or other integration initiatives. More rigorous evaluation of existing programs would also be helpful in understanding why gaps persist and how we can best address them. Introduction In the past 50 years Canada has had consistently high levels of immigration relative to other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD countries. More than 20 of the Canadian population and the labour force is foreign born see Exhibit 1 . Furthermore immigrants to Canada tend to be highly educated with more than 40 of incoming immigrants .