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Immigrant Group Differences in Job Satisfaction

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Abstract

Despite the large number of immigrants in Canada’s labor force, studies of immigrants to Canada have devoted insufficient attention to how country of birth and race are related to job satisfaction. Using data from a general population telephone survey of English-speaking workers in Toronto (n = 659), we investigate job satisfaction differences between white Canadian-born workers and immigrants born in the Caribbean, the Philippines, South Asia, China, Portugal, the United States, and the UK. Each of the immigrant groups is racially homogenous, and most of the groups are composed of (non-white) visible minorities. We find that the contrasts between Canadian-born whites and workers born in the Philippines and China remain substantial, and statistically significant under one-tailed tests, after age, gender, job type, income, job demands, job control, job support, workplace discrimination, job-related stress, and perceived unfairness at work are all controlled. We argue that social comparison theory offers the most compelling explanation for the persistence of group differences in job satisfaction after controls.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sociology, University of Toronto, 725 Spadina Ave., Toronto, ON, m5s 2j4, Canada

    William Magee & Janani Umamaheswar

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  1. William Magee
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  2. Janani Umamaheswar
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Correspondence to William Magee.

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Magee, W., Umamaheswar, J. Immigrant Group Differences in Job Satisfaction. Race Soc Probl 3, 252–265 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-011-9057-z

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