Ethnic Diversity Survey Research Articles

Cosmopolitan social infrastructure and immigrant cross-ethnic friendship

How do newcomers make cross-ethnic connections and friendships? This article investigates the role of associations as a location for making cross-ethnic friendships. Cosmopolitan social infrastructure includes public spaces, commercial establishments, and community organizations that attract a diversity of people into interaction. I look specifically at the importance of participation in cosmopolitan associations for cross-ethnic friendship. I approach these questions with an analysis of a nationally representative sample of Canadians collected as part of the Ethnic Diversity Survey. I find that participation in cosmopolitan associations is associated with having cross-ethnic friendship groups. To address the robustness of these findings, I use techniques from both longitudinal and treatment effects analysis. The findings suggest that cosmopolitan social infrastructure contributes to participants’ having cross-ethnic friendship groups.

Canadian immigrant youth and co-ethnic friendship group change

ABSTRACT Cross-ethnic friendships are at the heart of the immigration experience. We examine the incidence and change of co-ethnic friendship groups among 1.5 and second-generation immigrant youth in Canada using the nationally representative Ethnic Diversity Survey. We find that visible minority immigrant youth friendships are more co-ethic than those of non-visible minority immigrant youth. We also find visible minority individuals’ friendship groups become more co-ethnic over time. In addition, we find differences in the pattern and direction of change across different visible minority immigrant youth groups. We interpret these findings in light of theories of assimilation and segmented assimilation.

The significance of mixed family backgrounds for mainstream integration in Canada

ABSTRACT Recent research has shown that, in the U.S., individuals from mixed majority-minority families generally occupy positions in between whites and minorities but ‘lean’ white in the sense that they behave in ways more similar in key respects to white Americans than to minority ones; those who are partly black are an exception. Using the data from the 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey, we examine here whether the same pattern appears in Canada. We employ multiple indicators of integration – including self-classification as white rather than a visible minority, the perception of encountering discrimination, the choice of a marital partner, and household income – and find that, overall, Canadians from mixed majority-minority backgrounds are also in-between but lean white in some respects. The degree of this lean depends on the minority origin involved and tends to be strongest when the minority parent has an Arab background and weakest when that parent is black; individuals of white and Asian ancestry are intermediate. However, the distance of white–black Canadians from the others is not as extreme as is the case for white–black individuals in the U.S.

Muslims’ political and civic incorporation in France and Canada: testing models of participation

ABSTRACT This study examines the impact of national contexts on the political and civic incorporation of Muslim minorities by comparing France and Canada, with their sharply contrasting national integration ‘models’. Using large and comparable national surveys of immigrant minorities (French Trajectories and Origins Survey, 2008; Canadian Ethnic Diversity Survey, 2002), we analyse three interrelated dimensions of political and civic incorporation: acquiring citizenship, voting, and association membership. Our findings suggest a limited effect of national ‘models’ on these outcomes. While citizenship law produces lower naturalisation rates for all non-European-origin immigrants in France compared to Canada – with notably lower rates among French Muslims – Muslims and other non-European minorities are less likely to vote in Canada but not in France. Moreover, association membership positively influences citizenship in France but not in Canada. We conclude that the main effect of national ‘models’ on minorities’ political and civic incorporation occurs through differences in citizenship law itself.

Diversity in Canada: Predictors of the perceptions of social interactions

ABSTRACTCanada is one of the most diverse countries in the world, but do Canadians accept diversity? This study examines the factors that predict the perceptions of social interactions among individuals in Canada. The data were obtained from the Ethnic Diversity Survey (EDS) conducted by Statistics Canada and the Department of Canadian Heritage in 2002. Multivariate analyses were applied to investigate whether individuals’ racial, linguistic, religious, socioeconomic, and immigrant status influence their perceptions of their social interactions. The data comprised 41,695 responses from individuals in ten provinces of Canada, using a computer-assisted telephone interview method. The logistic regression results indicate that it is likely that people who belong to a visible minority, have lower socioeconomic status, speak non-official languages, and follow a religion other than Christianity feel discriminated against, uncomfortable/out-of-place, and worried about becoming a victim of hate-crime in Canada. The French-speaking people also feel discriminated against and out-of-place in Canada. This study informs us about the public attitude on the dynamics of social interactions in a multi-cultural and multi-racial society. It reinforces the need for community-based researchers, community development workers and policy makers to address discrimination and hostility and to invest in programs and policies that promote an inclusive society in Canada.

How do coethnic communities matter for educational attainment? A comparative analysis of the United States and Canada

The United States and Canada represent two of the largest immigrant-receiving countries. Although both countries have long histories of receiving immigrants, they are viewed differently in their abilities to integrate immigrants and their children. A popular and reoccurring narrative is Canada’s greater ability to integrate immigrants and their children compared with the United States. One possible explanation is that coethnic communities in Canada are more visible and supported by government funding than coethnic communities in the United States, which may differentially affect the outcomes of immigrants’ children in the two countries. Using nationally representative data from the Sensitive General Social Survey and Ethnic Diversity Survey, this study examines the effects of coethnic community, national origin group, and individual characteristics on educational attainment in the United States and Canada. This study utilizes differences in coethnic community and national origin group effects to understand institutional differences between the two countries. In particular, it finds that coethnic community education has a positive effect in both countries, but the effects for coethnic community income and educational selectivity differ. This study suggests that differences in coethnic community income and educational selectivity may be due to differences in immigration policy, which shape the types of settlement challenges and sources of support that immigrants and their children encounter upon arrival.

The religious switching of immigrants in Canada

ABSTRACTAlthough the contribution of immigration and religious switching to the changing religious landscape in Canada seems well established, we lack knowledge on the religious switching of immigrants. In this study, we address if and to what extent immigrants to Canada change religion after their arrival. We use data on religious affiliation and other demographic characteristics from the 1981, 1991 and 2001 censuses, as well as from the 2011 National Household Survey and the 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey to study, in a demographic perspective, the magnitude of religious switching among the immigrant population in Canada across the 30 years of observation. We compare it with the religious switching of the Canadian-born population and look for characteristics associated with religious switching among the population of immigrants. The results show that the patterns of religious switching of immigrants present similarities with that of the Canadian-born even if, in relative terms, net population change associated with religious switching is of a lower magnitude among the immigrant population in the most recent period. Religious background and place of birth appear to be related to religious change among immigrants in Canada.

Does Multiculturalism Work? Language, Friendship Homophily, and Well-Being of Immigrants in Canada

Multiculturalism is under attack in its birthplace, Canada. I revisit the connection between the two pillars of Canadian multiculturalism, namely acceptance of English and French as the official languages and respect and sharing among all cultural groups. A unique dataset, the 2002 Canadian Ethnic Diversity Survey, is used to analyze how learning more languages affects ethnic composition of people's social networks, which I propose as an indicator for social integration of new immigrants. I find that learning the official languages or learning more languages in general increases the ethnic diversity of a person's network. The economic and social well-being of immigrants are related to their language skills and ethnic composition of their social networks. The findings are generally in favor of advocates for multiculturalism.

Intersectionality and Gendered Political Behaviour in a Multicultural Canada

AbstractResearch on gendered political behaviour has been heavily influenced by feminist scholarship in understanding gender inequalities. Yet it has been more difficult to integrate the insights of more recent waves of feminist critics, notably among intersectional scholars. The focus has been on differences between women and men, rather than among differently situated women. This article addresses the difficulties of integrating intersections into large-n style studies of political behaviour using “situated comparisons” (Dhamoon, 2010). It then provides an analysis of gender gaps in turnout and civic engagement across ethnoracial groups in Canada using the Ethnic Diversity Survey (2002).It concludes by arguing that the study of gender and political behaviour must find a place for intersectional feminist approaches.

Muslims’ social inclusion and exclusion in France, Québec, and Canada: does national context matter?

ABSTRACTThis article compares the social experiences of Muslim minorities in three contexts – France, Québec, and English Canada – each reflecting a different approach to immigrant integration. France’s republican model emphasises cultural assimilation and the exclusion of religion from the public sphere; Canada’s multicultural model advocates official recognition of minority cultures; Québec shares Canada’s tradition of large-scale permanent immigration but embodies a unique intercultural discourse of integration, in some ways resembling France. We compare the social experiences of Muslim and non-Muslim minorities in these three settings using the French ‘Trajectories and Origins’ survey (2009) and the Canadian ‘Ethnic Diversity Survey’ (2002) data on reports of discrimination, friendship networks, social trust, voluntarism, and national identity. We find the Muslim/non-Muslim gap in social inclusion is significant in all three settings and results from ethnic, cultural, or racial differences, more than religion. In assessing immigrants’ social inclusion, we suggest consideration be given to: (i) the reality of ‘national models’ in the community, (ii) a tendency for minorities to locate in more accepting segments of mainstream society, and (iii) the limited impact of policies based on national models.

Religiosity and Subjective Wellbeing in Canada

Using the Canadian Ethnic Diversity Survey, I explore how religiosity associates with self-reported levels of wellbeing. The overall association of religious intensity with subjective wellbeing is found to be statistically significant, positive and small. When the impact is allowed to vary by religious group, it appears that Catholics and Protestants are very similar in how religiosity impacts their subjective wellbeing; the association is statistically significantly stronger for Canadian Muslims; and Canadian Jews are the closest group to religious nones. Surprisingly, among different dimensions of religious commitment, the intensity of religious belief is found to be the driver of the overall positive association, across religious groups. Finally, when Canadian population is divided into linguistic groups, religious involvement emerges as a negative predictor of French Canadians’ subjective wellbeing.

Religiosity and social trust: evidence from Canada

Using the latest wave of the Canadian Ethnic Diversity Survey, I investigate whether religious identity and religious intensity associate with the degree to which people trust others, controlling for a wide range of characteristics. The analysis shows that Canadian Roman Catholics are appreciably less trusting than mainline Protestants, and religious nones are situated in between these two groups. With regard to religious intensity, I find that higher commitment negatively correlates with trust in unknown others for Roman Catholics. The reverse is true for Protestants. Results also show stark cross-denominational variations within Protestantism, as two highly committed denominations of Mennonite and Pentecostal are found to be the most and the least trusting religious groups in Canada. No non-Christian religious minority is found statistically significantly less trusting than Canadian Roman Catholics. Considering particularized trust in one’s neighbours and co-workers yields comparable conclusions.

Religiosity and female labour market attainment in Canada: the Protestant exception

Purpose– The relationship between religiosity and female labour market attainment has been widely investigated for the USA; however, no comparable study has been undertaken for the Canadian context. The purpose of this paper is to redress this critical oversight of the literature by examining the impact of religiosity on Canadian female labour supply, both at extensive and intensive margins.Design/methodology/approach– Using data from the Canadian Ethnic Diversity Survey, the authors consider all the measurable dimensions of religiosity, for the pooled sample, as well as by religious group. A wide array of control variables is included in the regressions to insure the reliability of the estimates.Findings– The authors find that overall religiosity inversely relates to female labour supply in Canada. When the impact of religiosity is assessed on a by religion basis, it is revealed that Protestant females are penalized, by far the most.Practical implications– The result is comparable with the pattern uncovered in the USA for Conservative Protestant females. Unlike what can be expected, no statistically significant difference is detected between religious-nones and Catholics, suggesting a convergence of gender ideologies.Originality/value– The investigation reveals interesting patterns that not only contribute to the current state of literature, but also motivate future research. Fairlie and Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition techniques are also used to further explore attainment gaps among the religious groups.

To the End of the Hyphen-Nation: Decolonizing Multiculturalism

Visible minority is defined by Statistics Canada and by the Employment Equity Act as persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour (emphasis added). One of the realities is that when we talk of multiculturalism, we are currently talking about visible minorities only. The Toronto Roundtable on Multiculturalism Mosaic to Harmony: Multicultural Canada in the 21& Century (2007) NOW IS AN ESPECIALLY POWERFUL MOMENT to be researching and teaching in the field of Canadian literature. Across Turtle Island powerful and creative indigenous-led movements are mobilizing on number of fronts: to protest violations of indigenous treaty rights; to call for restitution; to defend land, water, sky, plants, and animals against corporate encroachment; to seek justice for housing infrastructure crises; to call for public inquiries into murdered and missing indigenous women, and to reinvigorate Aboriginal cultures. What is extraordinary about these movements is not the scale or strength of Aboriginal resistance. As Kwakwaka'wakw activist Gord Hill points out in his recent critical history, indigenous peoples have continually resisted the brutalities of colonialism for five hundred years, from the Beothuk resistance in Newfoundland in the early seventeenth century (19), to the Red Power Movements of the 1960s and 1970s (58), to the Kahnawake Warrior uprising at Oka. The recent and ongoing protests in resistance to the Northern Gateway Pipeline; the Pictou Blockade against Northern Pulp Mill; the Elsipogtog First Nation resistance of hydro fracking in New Brunswick, and the Idle No More protests during the winter of 2012-13 sparked by the Canadian federal government's proposed changes to the Indian, Fisheries, and Navigable Water Acts (amongst others; 21 Kino-nda-niimi Collective): these and other watershed movements squarely build on the strong legacy of indigenous resistance in the Americas and reverberate into the future. What is different about these resurgent movements is the degree of continent-wide non-indigenous participation and support. As the writers of The Winter We Danced: Voices from the Past, the Future, and the Idle No More Movement observe, engaged the oft-slumbering Canadian public as never before. Within four months, the Idle No More movement moved beyond the turtle's continental back and became global movement with manifold demands (22). Aparna Sanyal sees such indigenous-led movements as a gift from Canada's fastest-growing population [that] shows that the cultural centre of the country is shifting. In this context, it becomes an especially exciting endeavour to teach Canadian literature at the postsecondary level, when to teach students about the histories of colonial injustice means also to connect them with those of the present--as well as with the radical re-imaginings of Canada that these vigorous social movements invite. Or at least, that is how I wish it would feel. In reality, teaching indigenous literatures in the multicultural Canadian literature classroom remains as fraught an endeavour as ever. In some ways it may be more so. In this paper I weave together three scenes from my Canadian literature classroom into my analysis of Statistics Canada's Ethnic Diversity Survey (2002), an extraordinary document on multicultural belonging, in order to probe the unconscious ways in which multiculturalism shapes the reading and misreading of indigenous literatures, as well as the possibilities of future practices of solidarity and alliance building on Turtle Island. While this paper seeks to probe the unconscious pedagogical work that multiculturalism as social policy performs and why it makes teaching and learning indigenous literatures in multicultural contexts difficult, I want to differentiate the motivations of this paper from those of the pedagogical complaint tradition. Teachers' complaints about the perceived decline in quality of student literacy and thought forms robust tradition going back to the early modern era. …

Religiosity, gender, and wage: the differentiated impact of private prayer in Canada

Purpose– Does religiosity impact wages differently for males and females? Does the impact on wage of different dimensions of religiosity, namely the importance of religion, the frequency of religious practice with others and individually, differ for men and women? The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– Using the Canadian Ethnic Diversity Survey, made public in 2004, this paper investigates whether there are evidences for a gender difference in the impact of religiosity on wage. A Mincerean wage regression is estimated using both multiple linear regression and Heckit.Findings– Religious females are found to receive a premium over their labour earnings, through the frequency of private-prayer while the same dimension of religiosity penalizes males’ mean wage. The by-gender impact slightly widens for the subsample of employees, while it diminishes for the self-employed.Research limitations/implications– Making use of the most comprehensive data set available and standard methodology, the paper creates stylized facts that are of interest to the scholars of a multiplicity of disciplines.Practical implications– It advances the body of knowledge about the impact of religiosity on productivity and whether it has a by-gender component.Social implications– The research also informs policy-makers in their decision about the appropriate level of accommodation of religiosity in the workplace.Originality/value– The present work is the first research paper examining the by-gender impact of different dimensions of religiosity on productivity thereby wage.

Racial Variations in Ethnic Identity among the Children of Immigrants in Canada

Using data from the Ethnic Diversity Survey, we study the impact of parental human capital, family socialization, co-ethnic friendship, and experience of discrimination on ethnic identity formation among the children of immigrants from diverse ethnic backgrounds. In addition, we examine the extent to which these factors account for racial variations in ethnic identity attainment. The results show that racial minority children of immigrants are more likely to attain ethnic identity than their white counterparts. We also find racial variation is explained by parental human capital, family socialization, co-ethnic friendship, and past experience of discrimination. We discuss implications of our findings for Canada’s multiculturalism policy, which promotes the formation and maintenance of ethnic identity. Dans cette étude, nous utilisons les données de l’Enquête sur la diversité ethnique pour examiner l’impact du capital humain des parents, la socialisation familiale, les rapports entre amis de différentes ethnies, et l’expérience de la discrimination sur la formation de l’identité ethnique des enfants d’immigrants de diverses origines ethniques. Nous cherchons aussi à voir si ces facteurs expliquent les variations raciales dans la construction de l’identité ethnique. Les résultats montrent que les enfants d’immigrants de minorité raciale sont plus susceptibles de se forger une identité ethnique que leurs homologues blancs. De plus, les quatre facteurs expliquent la variation raciale. Nous discutons des implications de nos résultats pour la politique canadienne du multiculturalisme.

Gender equity in Canada's newly growing religious minorities

Using data from the 2001 Canadian census and the 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey, we find greater gender inequality in labour force participation among the newly growing religious minorities in Canada relative to mainstream Canadians. This gender inequality is only partly conditioned by the presence of young children. Although greatest among Muslim immigrants, other groups including Hindus and Sikhs also exhibit greater gender inequality in labour force participation relative to mainstream Canadians. These patterns fade with time in Canada. Lastly, the differences in gender inequality among religious groups reflect national cultures in the countries of origin more than differences in religious beliefs per se.

Experiences of discrimination and discomfort: A comparison of metropolitan and non‐metropolitan locations

This article compares feelings of discomfort and experiences of discrimination attributed to racial and ethnic difference among visible minorities and two white groups: “Europeans” and “white charter” individuals. In conducting the analysis, attention is given to the role of location by examining how responses vary in three types of locations in Canada: large and diverse metropolitan areas, smaller “second‐tier” cities, and towns and rural areas. Using the Ethnic Diversity Survey (EDS) as the principal data source, the results of descriptive and explanatory multivariate analyses are presented. Logistic regression analyses confirm that race frequently is interpreted as underlying experiences of discomfort and discrimination in Canada, with visible minorities much more likely to report racial and ethnic discomfort and discrimination than the two white groups. While location is not strongly related to racial and ethnic discrimination, it has a significant impact on reports of discomfort. Residents of Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver are more likely to report racial and ethnic discomfort than those living in non‐metropolitan areas. As others have reported in Australia and Great Britain, living in diverse social environments where negotiation of difference is an everyday necessity heightens discomfort. The findings highlight geographical variations in the lived experience of multiculturalism that warrant further investigation.

Understanding the Economic Integration of Immigrants: A Wage Decomposition of the Earnings Disparities between Native-Born Canadians and Recent Immigrant Cohorts

This study assesses whether characteristics relating to ethnic identity and social inclusion influence the earnings of recent immigrants in Canada. Past research has revealed that relevant predictors of immigrant earnings include structural and demographic characteristics, educational credentials and employment-related characteristics. However, due to the unavailability of situational and agency variables in existing surveys, past research has generally been unable to account for the impact of such characteristics on the economic integration of immigrants. Drawing on data from Statistics Canada's Ethnic Diversity Survey, this paper builds on previous research by identifying the relative extent to which sociodemographic, educational and ethnic identity characteristics explain earnings differences between immigrants of two recent cohorts and native-born Canadians. The results indicate that immigrants are disadvantaged in the labor market in terms of characteristics relating to sociodemographics and ethnic identity, but are advantaged in terms of human capital.

Bridges and Barriers: Religion and Immigrant Occupational Attainment across Integration Contexts

This article advances knowledge about context-dependent impacts of religion on immigrant structural integration. Drawing on theories of inter-generational immigrant integration, it identifies and spells out two context-dependent mechanisms through which religion impinges upon structural integration — as ethnic marker prompting exclusion and discrimination, or as social organization providing access to tangible resources. The propositions are empirically tested with nationally representative data on occupational attainment in three different integration contexts which vary in religious boundary configurations and religious field characteristics — the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. Using data from the US General Social Survey, the Canadian Ethnic Diversity Survey, and the European Social Survey, the article analyzes indirect and direct effects of religious affiliation and participation on occupational attainment among first and second generation immigrants. The analyses find only limited evidence for the assumption that in contexts with strong religious boundaries (such as Western Europe and, to a lesser extent, Canada), immigrants face religious penalties in structural integration. By contrast, the analyses support the assumption that in contexts with a thriving religious field (such as the United States and, to a lesser extent, Canada), religious attendance tends to be positively related to occupational attainment, especially for the second generation. For the first time, the article empirically tests arguments about transatlantic differences in the role of religion for immigrant structural integration, and it suggests ways of better integrating micro-oriented survey research with macro-oriented institutional analysis.