Religion Versus Ethnicity: Testing the Chinese Muslim Identity Debate Through Labor Market Outcomes in Canada

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Western literature on Chinese Muslims focuses primarily on Chinese Muslim identity, and generally falls within one of two opposing camps: the religious identity position, exemplified by Raphael Israeli's work, and the ethnic identity position, exemplified by Dru Gladney's work. The literature has been almost exclusively qualitative and historical in nature, and has focused largely on Chinese Muslims within China, or migrants to East and Southeast Asia. To better test these competing identity theories, we compare Chinese Muslim immigrants in Canada with non-Muslim Chinese and Muslim immigrants from other countries. Using Canadian census 1990 and 2000, the analysis provides initial information on the unique ethno-religious identity of Chinese Muslims, given the different labor market outcomes and geographic distributions of these three groups. The results suggest Chinese Muslims cannot be simply viewed as Muslims or as Chinese. Specifically, Chinese Muslims, as a multilayered minority population face increased penalties in the Canadian labor market compared to their Chinese and Muslim counterparts. This seems to indicate different integration processes for Chinese Muslims in Canada, and therefore implies that their unique ethnic-religious identity is not entirely based on their Islamic religion nor on Chinese nationality or culture.