How Do English-speaking Caribbean Immigrants in Toronto Find Jobs?: Exploring the Relevance of Social Networks

Abstract

INTRODUCTION This paper draws from a doctoral dissertation that examined factors beyond human capital that influenced labour market outcomes for immigrants to Toronto from Jamaica, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago. The majority of Canada's immigrants from these three countries live in Toronto. In addition, these immigrants are primarily racialized individuals who possess strong English language skills and high levels of education, training and work experience, but have experienced higher unemployment rates and lower incomes than the Canadian-born population (Colin 2007; James 2009; Preston et al. 2010). The key argument is that for English-speaking Caribbean immigrants, social networks are as important, if not more so, as human capital, for securing meaningful employment in Toronto. Canada's immigration policy seeks to attract immigrants on the basis of their human capital, but largely ignores the demand side factors that relate to how immigrants actually find jobs and does not adequately address factors that allow high-skilled immigrants to find work. The study is based on critical policy research, an inter-disciplinary approach to research that has many dimensions, but this paper is primarily focused on critical race. Critical race theorists investigate notions of race, blackness, and whiteness in the production of societal biases. Traditional critical race theory is focused on an analysis of the social construction of race and racism, and the manner in which people of colour are ordered and constrained in society (Trevino, Harris and Wallace 2008). In the Canadian context, emphasis is placed on examining the manner in which structural and institutional arrangements operate at a disadvantage to racialized groups. Critical race theory, therefore, offers useful insights in how discrimination comes to be structured into Canada's labour market (Galabuzi 2006; James 2009; James, Plaza and Jansen 1999). A number of researchers have expressed concern that Canada's employers may be discriminating against immigrants on the basis of race (Aylward 1999; Block and Galabuzi 2011; Teelucksingh and Galabuzi 2007; Warner 2006). Others have documented that Canada's visible minority immigrants earn lower incomes and have higher unemployment rates than other immigrants and the native-born (Block and Galabuzi 2011; Cardozo and Pendakur 2008; Gilmore 2008; Pendakur and Pendakur 2011; Reitz 2001, 2007). Quantitative studies have also established that poor labour market outcomes for racialized immigrants are linked to racial and gender discrimination (Pendakur and Pendakur 1998; Pendakur and Pendakur 2011). Though not the focus of this study, there are also lessons to be learned from the labour market experiences of Canada's seasonal agricultural workers, live-in caregivers and other temporary foreign workers who have experienced wage discrimination and abusive recruitment practices (Faraday 2014; Satzewich 1991; Tilson 2009). Experimental studies have also found evidence of discrimination, in that resumes from applicants with non-English sounding last names are often excluded at early stages of the job application process (Henry and Ginzberg 1985; Oreopoulos 2011). Qualitative studies of the experiences of nurses in Ontario also found that African-Canadian nurses experienced racism, sexism and classism (Das Gupta 1996; Hagey et al. 2001). Many of Canada's Caribbean immigrants have reported experiences of discrimination in the labour market, which they believe have affected their labour market outcomes (Colin 2007; James 2009; Preston et al. 2010). In each census period from 1996 to 2006, immigrants from the Caribbean experienced higher unemployment rates and lower incomes than the Canadian-born population (Colin 2007). This is the context from which the study examined the lived-experience of English-speaking Caribbean immigrants in Toronto, focusing in part on the obstacles they faced and highlighting the relevance of social networks to their job search. …