Reverse assimilation? Immigrants in the Canadian labour market during the Great Depression

Abstract

This paper uses Canadian census data from 1911 to 1931 to trace the labour market assimilation of immigrants up to the onset of the Great Depression. We find that substantial earnings convergence between 1911 and 1921 was reversed between 1921 and 1931, with immigrants from Continental Europe experiencing a sharp decline in earnings relative to the native-born. The effect of Depression labour market conditions was particularly pronounced among older immigrants with long tenures in Canada.