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Naomi Lightman, PhD Candidate, University of Toronto

The Exclusionary D ynamics of Data Collection: Exploring attrition and non-response rates among immigrants and racialized groups through the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics. Naomi Lightman, PhD Candidate, University of Toronto

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Naomi Lightman, PhD Candidate, University of Toronto

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  1. The Exclusionary Dynamics of Data Collection: Exploring attrition and non-response rates among immigrants and racialized groups through the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics Naomi Lightman, PhD Candidate, University of Toronto Luann Good Gingrich, Associate Professor, York University 16th National Metropolis Conference, Partnering for Success: Facilitating Integration and Inclusion Gatineau, Quebec, March 13, 2014

  2. Introduction • SSHRC/Metropolis National Research Competition project (2011-2013): The dynamics of social exclusion and inclusion for immigrants and racialized groups in Canada • Luann Good Gingrich (P.I.), Naomi Lightman, Andrew Mitchell, Ernie Lightman • Use of Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) dataset from Statistics Canada • recently discontinued by the federal government • longitudinal data past 2010 will not be available

  3. Social Exclusion – Processes and Outcomes Social Exclusion: The official procedures and everyday practices that function to (re)produce and justify economic, spatial, socio-political, and subjective divides (Good Gingrich, 2010; Lightman & Good Gingrich, 2012) • Material forms: economic and spatial • Symbolic forms: socio-political and subjective

  4. Project Overview • WHO is made socially excluded, in all forms, and the role of Canada’s labour market and social welfare system? • Theory development • Cross-sectional and longitudinal data analysis • Visible minority and immigrant status as dynamic social forces that direct who gets ahead and who falls (and stays) behind in the Canadian labour market

  5. Measuring Economic Exclusion: Creating an Index • Nine dimensions equally weighted to explore different facets of economic exclusion, based on research (e.g. Vosko, 2003, 2006; European Commission, 2012) • A mix of individual and family-level measurements • A mix of scaled and dichotomous measurements • No one indicator describes the dynamics of economic exclusion • However, combined we can see trends within and between groups across time • Cronbach'sα = .76

  6. The Economic Exclusion Index

  7. The Sample: • Individuals 18-64 who answered all dimensions of the Index • Full-time students who were concurrently working full-time were included • N = approx. 21,000-29,000 each year (1996-2010) • Comparing economic exclusion outcomes between: • Visible Minority Immigrants • Visible Minority Canadian-Born • White Immigrants • White Canadian-born

  8. Representation in the Most Excluded Quintile (Top 20%) of the Index, 1996-2010

  9. Cross-Sectional Results • Acute differentiation in terms of the economic exclusion of individuals based on skin colour • White immigrants have consistently lower rates of economic exclusion than the Canadian-born white population • Divides between social groups are maintained without diminishing over time • No evidence of consistent trends towards the economic inclusion of non-white individuals in Canada over the past 15 years

  10. But….The Data Problem Harper's government took "a wrecking ball to the Census and a meat axe to Statistics Canada" (Conway 2013) • The information not collected is as important as that which iscollected • the absence of data is not haphazard but follows certain trends or patterns • Boudarbatand Grenon (2013) find that attritors and non-respondents in the first panel of the SLID (1996-2001) are less likely to be employed, are more likely to move from place to place and have lower incomes

  11. Non-Response Rates for One or More Dimensions of the Index

  12. Non-Response Rate Results • The same racialiseddynamics that result in outcomes of economic exclusion also function to make certain individuals and groups invisible within certain data • Non-response rates appear to be increasing for all social groups from 1996-2010 • The acute racial divide as measured by our Economic Exclusion Index may actually be underestimated due to higher non-response rates by non-white individuals • Immigrants are roughly 10% more likely not to respond to all the Index dimensions, regardless of skin colour, than Canadian-born individuals • In recent years, Canadian-born visible minority individuals also show a marked increase in non-response

  13. Missing Data: Implications • Attrition is non-random  The dataset becomes less representative of the population from which the sample was first drawn as individuals withdraw from a sample, severely limiting our ability to make inferences or conduct national comparisons • Existing large-scale datasets often neglect both ends of the social spectrum, underrepresenting both the most advantaged and most disadvantaged • Important methodological questions about generating accurate and fulsome quantitative analyses that can inform our most pressing social issues • Those who are most excluded are hardly visible – in surveys, social policies, and laws – as they occupy very little space and often defy classification

  14. Conclusions • Efforts to ‘measure’ and ‘know’ the dynamics that make social groups are frequently inaccurate and partial • This leaves public opinion about such groups to be shaped by preconceptions and “folk theories” (Bourdieu 1989) that masquerade as fact and common sense • The limitations of national datasets are compounded in international comparisons, as the most dispossessed of the world often remain uncounted, or invisible • New databases and methodologies may be required to study the most profound systems and effects of social exclusion, toward informing transformative responses and closing growing gaps within and between societies

  15. Boudarbat, B., & Grenon, L. (2013). Sample Attrition in the Canadian Survey of Labor and Income Dynamics IZA Discussion Paper No. 7295: ForschungsinstitutzurZukunft der Arbeit Institute for the Study of Labor. Bourdieu, P. (1989). Social space and symbolic power. Sociological Theory, 7(1), 14-25. Conway, J. (2013). Harper's 11th commandment: "Thou shalt not commit sociology". CCPA Monitor20 (2), 38-39. European Commission. (2012). Employment and social developments in Europe 2011 (pp. 286). Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. Good Gingrich, L. (2010). The dynamics of social exclusion and inclusion for immigrants and racialized groups in Canada - A research proposal. Immigration and the Metropolis Research Proposal. York University. Toronto. Lightman, N., & Gingrich, L. G. (2012). The Intersecting Dynamics of Social Exclusion: Age, Gender, Race and Immigrant Status in Canada's Labour Market. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 44(3). Vosko, L. F. (2006). Precarious employment: Towards an improved understanding of labour market insecurity. In L. F. Vosko (Ed.), Precarious employment: Understanding labour market insecurity in Canada (pp. 1-39). Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press. Vosko, L. F., Zukewich, N., & Cranford, C. J. (2003). Precarious jobs: A new typology of employment. Perspectives on Labour and Income, 4(10), 16-26. References

  16. Thank you! Contact Information Naomi Lightman: naomi.lightman@mail.utoronto.ca Luann Good Gingrich: luanngg@yorku.ca

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