Chinese immigrants’ employment rate lower than average by nearly 20%
I found this study by Statistics Canada published earlier in 2005, based on findings in 2001 Census, dubbed “Chinese Canadians: Enriching the cultural mosaic”. It has some very interesting findings and provides a good glimpse of the life of Chinese Canadians.
First and foremost, the study finds Chinese immigrants’ employment rate lower than national average:
Challenges in the labour force The Chinese see themselves as hardworking, industrious people. They have had an impact on the development of Canada’s labour force during the 1990s. A total of 303,800 Chinese aged 15 to 64 came to Canada in the 1990s, representing roughly 22% of the growth in the labour force population during that period.However, as have many other newcomers, some recent Chinese immigrants experienced difficulties entering the labour market. According to the 2001 Census, prime workingage Chinese who immigrated in the 1990s had an employment rate of 61%, lower than the level of 80% for the total population. Many reasons lie behind the challenges to economic integration, but the recognition of foreign qualifications was reported by many Chinese as a major issue.
Click image to enlarge:
However, local born Chinese have a similar employment rate as the national average.
The employment situation of Chinese born in Canada was comparable to that of the total population.
The employment rate of Canadianborn Chinese men aged 25 to 54, at 86%, was the same as that for all Canadian-born men. Meanwhile, the rate for native-born Chinese-Canadian women, at 83%, was in fact higher than the proportion of 76% for all Canadian-born women.
Most Chinese immigrants work in sales and services, buisness, finanance, and administration.
Chinese work in a wide variety of occupations. In 2001, about one-fifth of prime working-age Chinese (aged 25 to 54) were in sales and service occupations, and another fifth in business, finance and administrative occupations.About 16% were in natural and applied sciences occupations, more than twice the share of 7% for the general population. Another 13% of Chinese were in management occupations, and 11% in occupations in processing, manufacturing and utilities.
In Census 2001, Chinese is the third most common mother tongue of Canadians.
All Chinese dialects taken together represent the third most common mother tongue reported in the 2001 Census, after English and French. About 3% of the population, or 872,400 people, reported a Chinese language as their mother tongue, that is, the language (or one of the languages) that they learned as a child and still understand.
Cantonese is the main dialect spoken among Chinese Canadians, including Canadian-born.
More than 320,000 people reported that their mother tongue was Cantonese. Of these Cantonese speakers, 44% were born in Hong Kong and another 27% in the People’s Republic of China. However, 18%, or more than 60,000, were Canadian-born.The second most common Chinese dialect language was Mandarin, the mother tongue of more than 103,200 people. Fully 85% of these individuals were born in the People’s Republic of China or Taiwan, while an additional 7% were born in Canada and 2% in Malaysia. Almost, threequarters (74%) arrived in Canada in the 1990s.
However, only about 790,500 people reported speaking a Chinese language at home on a regular basis, 81,900 fewer than those who reported having a Chinese mother tongue. This suggests some language loss has occurred, mainly among the Canadian-born who learned Chinese as a child, but who may not speak it regularly or do not use it as their main language at home.
English/French ability:
Although language retention is an important component of cultural diversity, knowledge of an official language is of particular importance for social and economic integration, especially for immigrants. In 2001, 85% of Chinese reported that they had conversational knowledge of at least one official language. About 15% reported they could speak neither English nor French.
And I like this one…. most don’t have religious affiliation:
Most reported no religious affiliation In general, 6 in 10 Chinese reported no religious affiliation in 2001, compared with only 16% of the total population. Religious affiliation varied with the region from which immigrants originated. Of those who were born in the People’s Republic of China, 71% reported no religious affiliation, as did 58% of those born in Hong Kong and 48% of those in Taiwan.
Members of the Chinese community who did hold religious beliefs tended to report Buddhism, Roman Catholicism and Protestantism as their religious affiliation. About onethird of Taiwanese immigrants indicated they were Buddhist, whereas one-third of immigrants born in Hong Kong reported they were Roman Catholic, Protestant or members of some other Christian denomination.
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