Immigrants, Ethnicity, and Earnings in 1901: Revisiting Canada's Vertical Mosaic

Abstract

The relationship among ethnicity, occupation, and class has been a major focus of Canadian historical sociology. This article uses a national sample of the 1901 nominal census of Canada to test specific hypotheses about immigrants, ethnicity, occupation, and earnings. The evidence suggests that a simplified version of the ‘vertical mosaic’ hypothesis cannot be applied to Canada in 1901. First-generation immigrants were not streamed disproportionately into low-wage, unskilled occupations; nor were they more likely than the Canadian-born to begin or end their working lives at the lowest end of the earnings distribution. Regression analysis reveals that ethnicity was significantly related to earnings, and that most ethnic groups earned less than the English and Scots. Nevertheless, wage discrimination did not create an ethnic occupational hierarchy, and the class structure was not built on ethnic differences. Abstract: La sociologie historique au Canada s’est beaucoup interessee au rapport entre l’ethnicite, l’emploi et la classe. Cet article fait appel a un echantillon national du recensement nominatif de 1901 en vue de tester des hypotheses specifiques concernant les immigrants, l’ethnicite, l’emploi et le revenu. Tout porte a croire qu’une version simplifiee de l’hypothese de la «mosaique verticale» ne peut s’appliquer au Canada en 1901. Les immigrants de premiere generation n’etaient pas diriges de facon disproportionnee vers les emplois a faible remuneration ou non specialises; et la probabilite qu’us commencent ou finissent leur vie active au plus bas de l’echelle des remunerations n’etait pas plus grande que pour les personnes nees au Canada. Une analyse de regression revele que l’ethnicite etait largement liee au revenu, et que la plupart des groupes ethniques gagnaient moins que les Anglais et les Ecossais. La discrimination salariale ne crea pas toutefois une hierarchie professionnelle edinique, et la structure de classe ne s’edifia pas sur des differences ethniques.