Jacques LEDENT Institut national de la recherche scientifique

1. Overqualification among salaried workers of immigrant origin in Montreal, Toronto and vancouver: a comparative analysis Jacques LEDENT Institut national de la recherchescientifique Centre Urbanisation, Culture et Société Prepared for presentation in the Speakers Series of the Social Statistics Program, McGill University, November 23, 2011

2. Background • Immigration represents an increasing proportion of the Canadian labour force, especially in the three metropolises (Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver) • … and it is more and more diversified in terms of • geographical origin • ethnic origin / visible minority • language etc… • The economic integration of the recent immigrants is more difficult • Lower activity • Higher unemployment • Lower income • … and more segmented owing to greater difficulties encountered by some groups (such as Arabic vismin, women coming from Africa etc…)

3. Motivation for comparing overqualificationin Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver • But the immigrant population is highly educated, especially the more recent cohorts, and thus it is more prone to overqualification than the non-immigrant population • Starting point : Statistical analysis carried out for Emploi-Québec (with Alain Bélanger and Guillaume Marois) on the influence of birthplace and vismin membership on overqualification of salaried workers residing on the Island of Montreal • This analysis = offshoot of the above that was carried out in the context of a summer internship awarded to Alina-Nicoleta Dinescu, a master’s student in demography at the Université de Strasbourg • Analysis more meaningful if for a true labour market => CMA level • Increasing interest of the Metropolis Project for the pan-canadian dimension => MTV focus • Employed rather than active salaried workers (to be able to distinguish full/part-time workers)

4. overqualification:general remarks

5. Literature review (1) • Initial impetus : Freeman (1976) • Theoretical model : a qualified workforce larger than is necessary will settle for less => Returns to education should plummet => Reduced investment in education => Return to equilibrium • But an increase in the demand for jobs with high skills has led to an even larger increase in educational level of workers. Hence, overqualification is a persistent issue • Measurement is a major problem. Three approaches: • Skills requirements determined by analyst (like in this presentation) • Worker’s self assessment • Comparison with a predefined educational distribution by occupation • Most of the literature is on prevalence and determinants of the phenomenon and its impact on wages

6. Literature review (2) Burgeoning literature on factors of overqualification in a high immigration context • Focus on ethnic differences • US : Duncan / Hoffman (1991) • UK : Sloan / Battu (2004) • Focus on differences according birthplace/period of immigration • Australia: Kler (2006) • Canada: Galarneau / Morissette (2004, 2008) • Quebec: Renaud / Cayn (2008), Bégin (2009) – See also Girard / Smith / Renaud (2008) • OECD (2007) where main factors are • Immigrant status • Socio-demographic factors (gender, age) • Human capital characteristics (origin of diploma, literacy proficiency, mother tongue)

7. Overqualification: Definition • Overqualified worker = worker having a job that is not commensurate with his/her skills Level of education of the worker > Level of skills required by the job Overqualifiedworkers

8. Jobs’ skills levels 5 levels defined by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada from the 2006 National Occupation Classification • Level D: Requires on-the-job training • Level C: Usually requires secondary school and/or occupation-specific training • Level B: Usually requires college education or apprenticeship training • Level A: Usually requires university education • Level 0: Management occupations

9. Workers’ education level 4 levels defined in agreement with Emploi-Québec on the basis of the highest certificate, degree or diploma (hcdd) completed: • Level D: None • Level C: High school diploma or equivalent • Level B: Trade cdd; college, CEGEP and other non-university ccd; university cdd less than a baccalaureate • Level A: University cdd at least equal to a baccalaureate

10. Overqualification: Measure for the Montreal CMA • Raw index = 100 * (# of workers in green cells) / Total # of workers = 29.4% But D-level workers cannot be overqualified => • Corrected index = 100 * (# of workers in green cells) / Total # of workers in last three rows = 33.4 % Note : No standardised skills and jobs levels => Comparison impossible between studies

12. Overqualification index

13. Overqualification index

14. Birthplace appears to influence overqualification a bit less than membership in a visible minority group Overqualification index according to birthplace or vismin membership

15. the statistical analysis

16. Objectives and research questions • Q1: What are the net effects of • Being born outside (rather than in) Canada • Belonging (rather than not belonging) to a visible minority after controlling for differences in other individual characteristics? How do these net effects compare between Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver? • Q2 : What are the main risk factors of overqualification for salaried workers with an immigrant origin? How do they compare with the corresponding factors for the remaining salaried workers? What are the similarities and differences in those factors between Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver ?

17. Practical considerations • Recourse to the 2006 census microdata (20% sample) accessible at QICSS • Utilization of a logistic regression model where Being overqualified or not = f (birthplace, visible minority membership, other individual characteristics)

18. Other individual characteristics • Socio-demographic characteristics • Gender • Age • Family status • Human capital characteristics • Highest certificate, degree or diploma completed • Place of study • Number of hours worked per week • Proficiency in the official languages

19. Note regardinginterpretation of the results • For each risk factor, the parameter corresponding to a given category is an odds ratio (OR) which expresses the relative change in the propensity to be overqualified if one belongs to that category rather than to a fixed category considered as the reference category, everything else being equal • Example : Influence of the genre : If OR = 1.20 for women (versus 1 for men) => Women are 20% more often overqualified than men, all other characteristics being the same • Significance levels : *** 0.0001 ; ** 0.01 ; * 0.1

20. Research question 1 :Influence of birthplace and visible minority status

24. In the end, only vismin membership really counts, for birthplace outside Canada has little influence

25. However, recent immigrant workers are more often overqualified than workers belonging to the 3rd generation, but less so in Vancouver ….. On the contrary, immigrant workers who immigrated before 1981 are less often overqualified than workers belonging to the 3rd generation

26. 3 vismin groups (Filipinos, Blacks and Latino-Americans) are much more overqualified in the 3 metropolises, 2 other groups (South Asians and Southeast Asians) are more overqualified in Toronto and Vancouver and a last group is slightly more overqualified in Toronto (Arabs) • Blacks and especially Filipinos (who include many educated women accepted as NPRs in CIC’s Living-in caretaker program) are somewhat more overqualified than Whites • - On the contrary, Chinese and West Asians are less overqualified than Whites

27. A birthplace outside Canada reinforces the vismin effect

28. Research question 2The risk factors of overqualificationin the target and comparison groups

29. Schematic representation of the population of immigrant origin

30. Being a female, being young or not having a spouse results in more overqualification Montreal CMA

31. The influence of socio-demographic factors appears to be similar in both groups with one exception (child) Montreal CMA

32. The influence of socio-demographic factors appears to be similar across cities with one exception (45 yrs and over) Target group

33. Having a Level B education, having studied elsewhere than in a Western country or working between 10 and 30 hours weekly results in more overqualification Montreal CMA

34. Again, the influence of human capital characteristics appears to be similar in both groups (except place of study) Montreal CMA

35. The influence of the human capital characteristics appears to be similar across cities with two exceptions (Level B education, study in Western country) Target group

36. Target group (Levels A and B) : The higher the (specific) diploma, the lower is overqualification

37. Proficiency in the official languages • None of the language variables in the census has a discriminating capacity • Proficiency in either official language (English or French) is better for those who speak it at home and, a fortiori, for those who have it as a mother tongue • As a result, our variable of language proficiency is obtained by cross-classifying the three language variables (Mother tongue, home language and Knowledge of the official languages) => 7 categories reflecting a continuous variation in language proficiency

38. For the target group, overqualification increases with diminishing proficiency in the official languages, in the 3 metropolises, not just in Montreal !

39. summary and conclusions

40. Main findings • Influence of birthplace and vismin • Strong influence of vismin membership • 3 groups in all three cities: Filipino, Black and Latino -American • South Asian and Southeast Asian in Toronto and Vancouver • Arab in Toronto • Reinforcing role of birthplace outside Canada • Nevertheless strong influence among recent (2001-2006) immigrants • Influence of other individual characteristics • Similar influence in both target and comparison groups (with a few exceptions including the linguistic variable) • Similar influence across the 3 cities • Clear gradient in the impact of the proficiency in the official languages (target group only)

41. Policy implications and future research • Policy implications • Target salaried workers belonging to the vismin and especially the Filipino, Black and Latin American groups • “No size fits all” programs intended for those born outside Canada but rather promote programs • Targeting recent immigrants • Aiming to attenuate the negative effects of risk factors such as being a female, young, having obtained a diploma in a non Western country, lacking proficiency in the official languages) • Research development • Pursue the analysis by level of education (already in progress) • Refine the dependent and independent variables