Pre-Arrival Experience with Social Media, Settlement Service Usage and Post-Arrival Labour Market Outcomes

Abstract

This paper identifies the short- and long-term labor market impact of negative experiences in using social media to gather information about the Canadian labor market at the pre-arrival stage. Negative social media experiences, mainly due to misinformation and a lack of digital skills, have a short-term negative effect on employment and earnings, but these effects dissipate in the long-term. Pre-arrival settlement services can help to minimize the negative effects of these social media experiences on newcomers’ post-arrival labor market outcomes, but settlement services can pressure newcomers into precarious work.