Abstract
The purpose of this study is to analyse the labour market for female immigrant nurses in Canada and to address the following question: does a nurse with foreign educational credentials have the same earning potential compared with a nurse who was educated in Canada? This is part of a more general question on economic discrimination against immigrants. Using data from the confidential master files of the 2001 Canadian Census on Individuals, this study finds that nurses educated outside of Canada do face wage penalties. This indicates that their credentials might not be fully recognized and/or valued in the Canadian labour market for registered nurses. This result is important to the business world since it suggests the possibility of a general finding that immigrant credentials may not be readily transferable and compensated in a new country. This can result in qualified workers not being able to gain meaningful employment and this source of labour might not be adequately used to fill jobs in industries facing labour shortages.
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Notes
See, for example, Botelho, Jones, and Kiker [1998], Mennemeyer and Gaumer [1983], Nowak and Preston [2001], and Schumacher [1997].
Only women will be examined in this paper as the sample of male immigrant nurses is relatively small.
The nursing sample is identified by selecting those whose list their major field of study to be nursing and who further identify themselves as working as a registered nurse.
The various exercises and regressions were also executed using annual employment earnings and the results are very similar to that which was found using the derived hourly wages.
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*Karen J. Buhr is an assistant professor of Economics at the University of Maine and holds a joint appointment with the School of Economics and the Canadian American Center. Her current research focuses on the labor market for registered nurses in the United States and Canada. She is particularly interested in studying earnings, workplace stress, and job satisfaction among nurses and how this affects retention. She received a BA with honours in economics from the University of Winnipeg, an MA in economics from Queen's University in Ontario, and a Ph.D. in economics from Carleton University.
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Buhr, K. Do Immigrant Nurses in Canada See a Wage Penalty? An Empirical Study. Bus Econ 45, 210–223 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1057/be.2010.23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/be.2010.23