Employment Discrimination

Some viewers of our expose and educational videos on YouTube at xeron123456 have questioned whether there is discrimination against non-white/non-European people in the labour market as Ernst Zundel claimed in a video we presented. I responded by saying that the discrimination was obvious and promised to provide proof. Here is a little it.

First, even though the readers questioned discrimination against minorities in the labour market, they admitted that discrimination against First Nations was rampant. As a result, presented below are some studies of discrimination against only a few obvious groups.

It should be noted that discrimination against Irish, Italian and Polish workers was rampant throughout the early history of Canada as workers were imported to do the worst and most dangerous jobs. Now, other groups serve the purpose of cheap expendable labour. A simple test is to go to any large city and look at who drives taxi, who does maid service, who does the worst, lowest paying jobs. In ear area of the country (and the USA and throughout Western Europe) you will find specific ethnic groups who have been brought into the country to fill those jobs and who are largely still stuck in them. There is certainly mobility now and there are many doctors, lawyers, dentists who are not white. In some cases, immigration law has specifically targeted some occupations to be filled by immigrant labour. It is cheaper to import educated trained workers than to train them in the developed world. This is the so-called "brain drain". Canada also allows in "entrepreneurs" who immigrate by virtue of the money and business resources they bring to the country. But nevertheless, there are occupations filled by so-called guest workers, like nannies, house keepers, farm workers and in some cases, construction workers. In these cases, workers are paid below the minimum wage and often suffer severe working conditions. (See, for example, http://www.stopracism.ca/content/racism-and-foreign-domestic-workers-can... and the other studies at that menu tab.)

It is pointless to examine broad categories of workers against each other, for example, white versus "visible minority" as raw categories. It only makes sense to examine groups and within groups. Averages often tell us little about reality.

Now to a few studies (and I will probably add to these as time permits).

http://www.globalafrikancongress.org/Documents_of_Interest/Anti-Black_Ra...

A few quotations and please check their sources:

"Census data show that there were 573,860 Blacks living in Canada in 1996, constituting two percent of the total population.1 African Canadians occupy a low rung on the country’s economic ladder, due mainly to discrimination that they face in the job market."

"i) Immigrants Facing a Racialized Labour Market
Income, sectoral occupation and unemployment data show that a racialized labour market is an endemic feature of the Canadian economy4.
A key characteristic of this racial and gender market segmentation is the over-representation of racial minorities (particularly women) in low paid, low-end occupations and low-income sectors. Racial minority women in particular are ghettoized in low paying service sector jobs, of a mainly precarious, unregulated, temporary (or contingent) kind.
In contrast, there is also a concentration of racial minorities in professional and technical positions. Conversely, they are under-represented in high paying occupations, particularly management and high-income sectors"

In summary: "Jeffrey Reitz, a University of Toronto professor, found that foreign education and experience are devalued in the Canadian labour market. This results in the under-employment of many immigrants who work in jobs well below their level of skill and experience. Secondly, when immigrants do get jobs that recognize their skills and experience, they are paid less than Canadian-born workers. Reitz assessed the labour market value of foreign work experience as effectively zero. He notes that, “it seems striking that race seems to be a more reliable predictor of how foreign education will be evaluated in Canada” than an immigrant’s country of origin."

"ii) All Blacks (not only Immigrants) Face Racial Discrimination in the Job Market
Reitz also notes that Canadian-born racial minorities are also disadvantaged in the labour market. The economic gap for Blacks born in Canada is, therefore, equivalent to that of Black immigrants.
iii) Education and Income
Data show that racial minority group members are more likely to have a higher educational attainment than other Canadians. Some 18 percent of the racial minorities aged 15 and over had a university degree compared with 11 percent of other adults. As well, while the percentage of those with less than high school education was 33 percent for racial minorities, it was 39 percent for other adults.
Yet even among those aged 25 to 44 with a university degree, adults in racial minorities are less likely than others to be employed in professional or managerial occupations. Instead many are concentrated in lower paying clerical, service and manual
labour jobs. The structures of racial discrimination that generate these inequalities in the workplace also impact access to educational opportunity over the long term."

Also see http://cansim2.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-win/cnsmcgi.pgm?Lang=E&AS_Abst=11F0019M...

"Abstract for Will They Ever Converge? Earnings of Immigrants and Canadian-born Workers over the Last Two Decades

Using census data covering the 1980 to 2000 period, we examine what outcomes would be necessary for cohorts of recent immigrants to achieve earnings parity with Canadian-born workers. Our results show that today's recent immigrants would have to experience a drastic rise of their relative age-earnings profile in the near future for their earnings to converge with their Canadian-born counterparts. The reason is simple: the greater relative earnings growth experienced by cohorts of recent immigrants has only partially offset the drastic deterioration in their relative earnings at entry. "

I will post more studies as time permits. Add your comments and sources below...