Ethnoracial disparities in commute duration and mode among Canadian-born millennials

Abstract

In the past few decades, ethnoracial diversity has substantially grown in Canada. Both occupational and residential segregation of minorities are well-documented phenomena. Together, they can lead to a “segmented assimilation” of minorities who are born in the host country, whereby they converge to the patterns observed in their foreign-born co-ethnics, rather than the majority population. An important dimension of segmented assimilation regards commute to work, its duration, distance, and mode. Using the Canadian Census of 2016, the present study finds large disparities by race and ethnicity among millennials born in Canada, in commute duration. The commute duration gap is especially large when black millennials are compared with their white counterparts. Further analysis shows that these gaps are driven by the greater reliance of ethnoracial minorities on public transit for their journey to work, compared with whites. Policy implications are discussed.