Peter S. Li

Economic Returns of Immigrants' Self-employment*

Research on ethnic business and immigrant entrepreneurship has posed two major questions. First, why are some immigrant groups more inclined toward entrepreneurship and self- employment? Second, are those immigrants who engage in business better remunerated than

Immigration from China to Canada in the Age of Globalization: Issues of Brain Gain and Brain Loss

Historically, waves of immigrants who contributed to the labour supply needed for agricultural settlement and industrial expansion. Since the end of the Second World War, there has been a change in how immigrantreceiving countries have framed immigrant selection policies. As advanced industrial economies experienced an increased demand for skilled workers, the shift has been to an evaluation of the human capital and skill of prospective immigrants, rather than criteria based on national or racial origin. Under the influence of economic globalization, the recruitment of highly skilled workers has become a more pressing issue for immigrant-receiving countries like Canada and the US. The purpose of this paper is to examine the recent trends of immigration from China to Canada and to analyze the economic worth of human capital transfer to Canada. The paper provides estimates of the value of human capital transfer to Canada as a result of immigration from China, and assesses how the transferred human capital is being evaluated in the Canadian labour market. The analysis suggests that international migration in the global age involves the transference of human capital and the embedded economic value of such capital, but whether this capital is utilized is contingent upon how the labour market of the receiving country can fully recognize the productivity of such labour.

The making of post-war Canada

1. Social Change and Society 1.1 Population Change in Canadian History 1.2 The Logic of Social Change 1.3 Social Relations of Fur Trade 1.4 Mode of Production and Social Formation 1.5 Capitalism and Social Change 1.6 The Post-War Generation in Canada 2. Corporate Capitalism in Canada 2.1 Features of Corporate Capitalism in Canada 2.2 Changes in Foreign Investment and Foreign Capital 2.3 Corporate Capital 2.4 Labour as a Commodity Under Capitalism 2.5 The Growth of the Capitalist Labour Market 3. The Restructuring of the Capitalist Labour Market 3.1 Capitalist Production and Mass Consumption 3.2 Participation of Women in the Labour Market 3.3 Division of Labour and Scientific Management Under Corporate Capitalism 3.4 Restructuring of Industries and Work 3.5 Changes in the Occupational Structure 3.6 Women and Jobs 3.7 The Wage Economy and the Family 4. Labour Reproduction and the Family 4.1 Response Strategies of the Family to the Wage Economy 4.2 Dual Earner Families, Earnings and Dept Load 4.3 The Cost of Labour Renewal 4.4 The Trend of Declining Fertility 4.5 Lone-Parent Families and Other Changes in the Family 4.6 The Wage Economy and the Family 5. The Demographic Shift and The Welfare State 5.1 The Demographic Shift in Canada 5.2 The Welfare State Under Capitalism 5.3 The Development of the Welfare State in Canada 5.4 The Cost of the Welfare State 5.5 The Fiscal Crisis of the State 6. Immigration and the Recruitment of Labour and Capital 6.1 Overview of Immigration to Canada 6.2 Changes in Canadas Post-War Immigration Policy 6.3 Immigration and the Skilled Labour Market 6.4 Immigrants in the Canadian Labour Force 6.5 Ethnic Diversity of Immigrants 6.6 The Recruitment of Business Immigrants and International Capital 6.7 Immigration and the Recruitment of Labour and Capital 7. Organized Interests and Collective Claims 7.1 Individual Rights and Social Inequality 7.2 Gender Inequality and the Womens Movement 7.3 Native Peoples and Aboriginal Rights 7.4 French-Canadians and Quebec Separatism 7.5 Visible Minorities and Multiculturalism 7.6 Collective Rights and Political Changes 8. Post-War Canadian Society 8.1 Social Change and Society 8.2 Advanced Capitalism and Capitalist Labour Markets 8.3 Women and the Restructuring of Occupations 8.4 Labour Reproduction and the Family 8.5 Demographic Shift and the Welfare State 8.6 Immigration and Labour 8.7 Organized Interests and Collective Claims 8.8 Canadian Society and Its Future APPENDIX

Decomposing Immigrants' Economic Integration in Earnings Disparity: Racial Variations in Unexpected Returns

The discourse on immigrants’ economic integration often assumes that the human capital of immigrants determines the outcome of successful integration, measured as income parity with the native-born population. This paper decomposes the employment earnings of immigrants and native-born Canadians in Canada to see how much of income disparity may be attributed to human capital factors and how much to other factors. The findings indicate that immigrants have brought high levels of human capital to Canada, often surpassing those of the native-born, but immigrants under-perform in earnings because of other unexplained returns. The findings suggest that there are limits in using immigrant selection policy to increase the human capital content of immigrants as a means to achieve successful economic integration, and that other policies that influence how immigrants, especially those of minority origin, are treated in the labour market should be considered as a means to bridge income disparity.

Vancouver Chinatown in Transition

Much has been written about Chinatowns in North America as a self-sustained community with fairly complete social institutions. Chinatowns emerged under an era of racism and discrimination and offered some degrees of protection and opportunity to the Chinese. Historically, Vancouver’s Chinatown suffered from a public image of an unhygienic and immoral neighborhood where Chinese resided and where Chinese shops and businesses congregated. This image began to change in the 1930s as the Chinese reshaped Chinatown to suit the racial ideology of a culturally exotic neighborhood that offered Oriental cuisine and festivities to Canadians. As more Chinese immigrated to Canada after World War II, a new Chinese middle class began to emerge. Although Vancouver Chinatown continued to grow and to retain the image of a tourist attraction, it has ceased to be the choice residential and business location for the Chinese. In contrast, Richmond south of Vancouver has developed into a vibrant and affluent business and residential enclave for middle-class Chinese. This article argues that the emergence and decline of Vancouver’s Chinatown have been shaped by the nature of race formation in society as well as the internal composition and social organization of the Chinese community.

Reconciling with History: The Chinese-Canadian Head Tax Redress

ON JUNE 22, 2006, STEPHEN HARPER, PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA, offered a full apology to Chinese Canadians at the Parliament of Canada for the imposition of the head tax and expressed sorrow for the subsequent exclusion of Chinese immigrants as a result of the 1923 Chinese Immigration Act. It took 121 years after the first head tax was levied on Chinese entering Canada and 83 years after the passing of the 1923 Act before Canada officially recognized the historical wrongdoings to the Chinese. Despite intense lobbying by Chinese-Canadian community organizations and individuals since the first Chinese Canadian filed a claim in 1983 to have the amount of the head tax returned to him, it was only after seven prime ministers had taken office, and many negotiations and court proceedings had taken place, that a settlement was reached in 2006. Why did the Canadian Chinese head tax redress take so long to materialize, especially in view of the 2002 apology offered by Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand, to New Zealand Chinese on account of a similar head tax? This report traces the history of the Chinese head tax redress in Canada and examines the factors that contributed to its settlement.

Race, racialization and Indigeneity in Canadian universities

Abstract This article is based on data from a four-year national study of racialization and Indigeneity at Canadian universities. Its main conclusion is that whether one examines representation in terms of numbers of racialized and Indigenous faculty members and their positioning within the system, their earned income as compared to white faculty, their daily life experiences within the university as workplace, or interactions with colleagues and students, the results are more or less the same. Racialized and Indigenous faculty and the disciplines or areas of their expertise are, on the whole, low in numbers and even lower in terms of power, prestige, and influence within the University.

Chinese Canadians in Business

Conventionally, restricted opportunities in the open market, in combination with the presence of suitable ethnic resources, provide the explanation as to why some immigrant groups are more inclined towards business undertakings than others. More recently, the immigrant enclave thesis developed in the US suggests that some immigrant entrepreneurs are attracted to ethnic business because of its lucrative returns. Using the case of Chinese Canadians from the microdata of the 1996 Census of Canada, this paper finds that the net returns of self-employment vary among Chinese Canadians. Self-employment brings a net earning disadvantage for foreign-born Chinese-Canadian men, as well as for women irrespective of nativity. Only native-born Chinese-Canadian men in self-employment maintain a net advantage over their counterpart wage workers. These findings suggest that the Chinese Canadians engage in self-employment for different reasons, depending on gender and nativity. Thus, both the argument of business engagement as a “last choice” as implied in the blocked mobility thesis, and that of a “first option” as suggested in the immigrant enclave thesis can be valid even for the same ethnic group.

Integration of Minority Migrant Workers in Lanzhou, China

Past research on China’s migrant workers—those officially registered in agricultural households but work in the city—has shown that China’s hukou system, or registration system, restricts them from obtaining city household registration, without which access to social security is limited. Little research has been done on the integration of migrant workers of minority origin. Based on a 2011 survey of 1,090 minority migrant workers in Lanzhou, a northwestern city of China, this paper examines two aspects of integration: an objective one that measures access to social security benefits, and a subjective one that gauges the belief of inequity in employment opportunity. The paper argues that integration of minority migrant workers in China involves being treated equally in basic benefits as urbanites, and such treatment affects their sense of fairness in the labour market. The findings suggest that integration of minority migrant workers involves not only cultural or economic factors, but also issues of entitlement and sense of inequality.

Differences in Employment Income of University Professors

This paper analyzes the employment earnings of university professors in Canada to see if visible minority status affects earnings. Using detailed data from the Analytical File of the 2006 Census of Canada, the study compares the earnings of professors of eight non-white groups to the earnings of white professors, controlling for gender. The findings indicate that most visible minority professors, male and female, earned less than their white counterparts before individual characteristics are controlled, and the earnings disparities, albeit in smaller magnitudes, remain after other differences are adjusted. Since productivity, not measured, may affect earnings, the study performs another analysis on young professors under the age of 32. The analysis shows the same pattern: visible minority status affects net earnings after other factors have been controlled. The study concludes that it is difficult to attribute residual earnings disparities to unequal racial treatment since productivity is not measured. However, it is equally hard to dismiss unequal racial treatment since the same pattern is also found among professors in the early stage of their career where productivity differences tend to be much smaller. Dans cet article, nous analysons les revenus d’emploi des professeurs d’université au Canada pour voir si l’appartenance à une minorité visible en influence le niveau. À partir des données détaillées du Dossier analytique du recensement du Canada de 2006, nous comparons dans cette étude les gains de professeurs de huit groupes de couleur avec ceux de huit groupes de Blancs, tout en tenant compte du sexe. D’après les résultats, les professeurs des minorités les plus visibles, hommes et femmes, étaient moins rémunérés que ceux de race blanche, et ce, avant de faire cas des caractéristiques individuelles, et les disparités dans ces revenus restent, même si elles sont de moindre magnitude, une fois que d’autres différences sont ajustées. Étant donné que la productivité, non évaluée, peut affecter les rémunérations, cette étude comprend aussi une autre analyse qui porte sur les jeunes professeurs de moins de 32 ans. Cette analyse met en évidence le même modèle : l’appartenance à une minorité visible joue un rôle sur le salaire net, une fois les autres facteurs pris en compte. Il résulte de cette étude qu’il est difficile d’attribuer les disparités résiduelles de revenu à un traitement racial inégal, étant donné que la productivité n’est pas mesurée. Il est cependant tout aussi ardu de rejeter l’existence d’une telle inégalité, vu que la même tendance se retrouve aussi chez les professeurs en début de carrière, quand les différences de productivité ont tendance à être moindres.