Abstract
In recent decades institutional change-related to education, labour markets, government policies, and globalization-has dramatically altered the reception of new immigrants in Canada, creating new obstacles to their employment and economic success. What effect, if any, does institutional change have on the second-generation children of immigrants? This article proposes an institutional model for minority integration that locates immigrant generational succession and successive second-generation cohorts as embedded in a changing institutional structure. Current research findings on early family life, educational attainment, and labour market success of the second generation in Canada are interpreted in the light of this model, raising significant issues for future research.
Résumé
Depuis quelques dizaines d’années, des changements institutionnels touchant l’éducation, les marchés du travail, les politiques gouvernementales et la mondialisation, ont énormément modifié l’accueil des nouveaux immigrants au Canada, leur dressant de nouveaux obstacles sur la voie de l’emploi et de la réussite réussite économique. Quel est l’effet—si effet il y a—des changements institutionnels sur les enfants des immigrants, cette deuxième génération? Cet article propose un modèle institutionnel de l’intégration des minorités qui considère la succession transgénérationnelle chez les immigrants et les cohortes de deuxième génération comme étant intégrées au sein d’une structure institutionnelle en évolution. Des résultats de recherches récentes portant sur la vie de famille pendant l’enfance, le rendement scolaire et les réussites sur le marché du, travail chez la deuxième génération au Canada sont interprétés à la lumière de ce modèle, ce qui soulève des questions importantes pour la recherche à l’avenir.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abouguendia, M., & Noels, K.A. (2001). General and acculturation-related daily hassles and psychological adjustment in first and second-generation South Asian immigrants to Canada. International Journal of Psychology, 36(3), 163–173.
Alladin, M.I. (1996). Racism in Canadian schools. Toronto, ON: Harcourt Brace Canada.
Andres, L., & Looker, E.D. (2001). Rurality and capital: Educational expectations and attainments of rural, urban/rural and metropolitan youth. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 31(2), 1–46.
Anisef, P., & Kilbride, K.M. (2003, February 28). Immigrant youth in Ontario: Their needs and our current responses. Paper presented at the Education Domain Seminar, OISE, Toronto.
Aycan, Z., & Kanungo, R. (1998). Impact of acculturation on socialization beliefs and behavioural occurrences among Indo-Canadian immigrants. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 29(3), 451–467.
Baker, M., & Benjamin, D. (1997). Ethnicity, foreign birth and earnings: A Canada/U.S. comparison In MG. Abbott, C.M. Beach, & R.P. Chaykowski (Eds.), Transition and structural change in the North American labour market (pp. 281–313). Kingston, ON: John Deutsch Institute and Industrial Relations Centre, Queen’s University.
Beiser, M., Hou, F., & Hyman, I. (2002). Poverty, family process, and the mental health of immigrant children in Canada. American Journal of Public Health, 92(2), 220–227.
Beiser, M., Hou, F., Hyman, I., & Tousignant, M. (1998). Growing up Canadian—A study of new immigrant children (W-98-24E). Hull, QC: Applied Research Branch, Human Resources Development Canada.
Beiser, M., Hou, F., Kaspar, V., & Noh, S. (2000). Changes in poverty status and developmental behaviours: A comparison of immigrant and non-immigrant children in Canada (W-01-1-1E). Hull, QC: Applied Research Branch, Human Resources Development Canada.
Bloemraad, I. (2003). Institutions, ethnic leaders, and the political, incorporation of immigrants: A comparison of Canada and the United States. In J.G. Reitz (Ed.), Host societies and the reception of immigrants (pp. 361–401). San Diego, CA: Center for Comparative Immigration Research, University of California.
Bouchard, B., & Zhao, J. (2000). University education: recent trends in participation, accessibility and returns. Eduction Quarterty Review, 6(4), 24–32.
Boyd, M. (1992). Gender, visible minority, and immigrant earnings inequality: Reassessing an employment equity premise. In V. Satzewich (Ed.), Deconstructing a nation: Immigration, multiculturalism and racism in the 1990’s Canada (pp. 279–321). Toronto, ON: Garamond Press.
Boyd, M. (2000). Ethnicity and immigrant offspring. In M.A. Kalbach & W.E. Kalbach (Eds.), Perspectives on ethnicity in Canada (pp. 137–154). Toronto, ON: Harcourt Canada.
Boyd, M. (2002). Educational attainments of immigrant offspring: Success or segmented assimilation?. International Migration Review, 32(4), 1037–1061.
Boyd, M., & Grieco, E. (1998). Triumphant transitions: Socioeconomic achievements of the second generation in Canada. International Migration Review, 32(4), 853–876.
Butlin, G. (1999). Determinants of post-secondary education. Education Quarterly Review, 5(3), 9–35.
Castles, S., & Miller, M. (2003). The age of migration: International population movements in the modern world. New York: Guilford.
Cheng, M., & Yau, M. (1999). The 1997 every secondary secondary student survey: Detailed fainings (230). Toronto, ON: Toronto District School Board.
Chow, H.P.H. (2000). The determinants of academic performance: Hong Kong immigrant students in Canadian schools. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 32(3), 105–111.
Christofides, L., Cirello, J., & Hoy, M. (2001). Family income and post-secondary education in Canada. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 31(1), 177–208.
Collacutt, M. (2002). Canadian immigration and refugee policies: Do they meet our needs? Victoria, BC: Canadian Institute for International Affairs.
Corak, M., Lipps, G., & Zhao, J (2003). Family income and participation in post-secondary education (210). Ottawa: Family and Labour Studies Division: Statistics Canada.
Davies, S., & Guppy, N. (1998). Race and Canadian education. In V. Satzewich (Ed.), Racism and social inequality in Canada: Concepts, controversies and strategies of resistance (pp. 131–156). Toronto, ON: Thompson Educational Publishing.
de Silva, A. (1992). Earnings of immigrants: A comparative analysis. Ottawa: Council of Canada.
de Silva, A. (1997). Wage discrimination against visible minority men in Canada. Canadian Business Economics, 5(Summer), 25–42.
Dei, G.J.S. (2000). Recasting anti-racism and the axis of difference: Beyond the question of theory. Race, Gender and Class, 7(2), 38–56.
Dinovitzer, R., Hagan, J., & Levi, R. (2003). Youth crime, commitment to capitalization and the ethnic transformation of a global edge city. Unpublished manuscript.
Employment and Immigration Canada. (1987). Employment equity act.
Foner, N. (2003). Immigrants and African Americans: Comparative perspectives on the New York experience across time and space. In J.G. Reitz (Ed.), Host societies and the reception of immigrants (pp. 45–71). San Diego, CA: Center for Comparative Immigration Research, University of California.
Frenette, M. (2003). Access to college and university: Does distance matter? (201): Business and Labour Market Analysis, Statistics Canada.
Geschwender, J.A., & Guppy, N. (1995). Ethnicity, educational attainment, and earned income among Canadian born men and women. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 27(1), 67–83.
Glick-Schiller, N., & Fouron, G.E. (2001). Georges woke up laughing: Long, distance nationalism and the search for home. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Henry, F., Tator, C., Mattis, W., & Rees, T. (1998). The colour of democracy: Racism in Canadian society. Toronto, ON: Harcourt Brace.
Hou, F., & Balakrishnan, T.R. (1996). Integration of visible minorities in contemporary Canadian society. Canadian Journal of Sociology, 21(3), 307–326.
Hou, F., & Picot, G. (2003). Visible minority neighbourhood enclaves and labour market outcomes of immigrants. In C. Beach, A. Green, & J.G. Reitz (Eds.), Canadian immigration policy for the 21st century (pp. 537–571). Kingston, ON: John Deutsch Institute for the Study of Economic Policy.
Hum, D., & Simpson, W. (1999). Wage opportunities for visible minorities in Canada. Canadian Public Policy, 25, 379–394.
James, C.E. (1997). Contradictory tensions in the experiences of African Canadians in a faculty of education with an access program. Canadian Journal of Education, 22, 158–174.
Kasinitz, P. (1992). Caribbean New York: Black immigrants and the politics of race. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Kasinitz, P., Waters, M., Mollenkopf, J., & Anil, M. (2002). Transnationalism and the children of immigrants in contemporary New York. In P. Levitt & M. Waters (Eds.), The changing face of home: The transnational lives of the second generation (pp. 96–122). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Kaspar, V. (2003). Mental health of immigrant and non-immigrant children. In C. Beach, A. Green, & J.G. Reitz (Eds.), Canadian immigration policy for the 21st century (pp. 573–605). Kingston: John Deutsch Institute for the Study of Economic Policy.
Kazemipur, A., & Halli, S.S. (2000). The new poverty in Canada: Ethnic groups and ghetto neighbour-hoods. Toronto, ON: Thompson Educational Publishing.
Kazemipur, A., & Halli, S.S. (2001). The changing colour of poverty in Canada. Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 38, 217–238.
Kazemipur, A., & Halli, S.S. (2001b). Immigrants and the “new poverty”: The case of Canada. International Migration Review, 35(4), 112–1156.
Kobayashi, A., Moore, E., & Rosenberg, M. (1998). Healthy immigrant children: A demographic and geographic analysis (Working Paper W-98-20E). Hull, QC: Human Resources Development Canada Applied Research Branch.
Levitt, P., & Glick Schiller, N. (2003). Transnational perspectives on migration: Conceptualizing simultaneity. Princeton, NJ: Center for Migration and Development. Working Paper Series, Princeton University.
Levitt, P., & Waters, M. (Eds.). (2002). The changing face of home: The transnational lives of the second generation. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Levy, D., & Smith, H. (1997). Is there an immigrant “underclass” in Canadian cities? Working Paper 97-08. Vancouver, BC: Centre of Excellence, Research on Immigration and Integration in the Metropolis.
Li, P. (2000). Earnings disparities between immigrants and native-born Canadians. Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 37, 289–311.
Massey, D., Arango, G., Hugo, G., Kouaouci, A.Q., Pellegrino, A., & Taylor, J.E. (1998). Worlds in motion: Understanding international migration at the end of the millennium. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ornstein, M. (2000). Ethno-racial inequality in Metropolitan Toronto: Analysis of the 1996 Census. Toronto, ON: Institute for Social Research, York University.
Pawliuk, N., Grizenko, N., & Chan Yip, A. (1996). Acculturation style and psychological functioning in children of immigrants. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 66, 111–121.
Pendakur, K., & Pendakur, R. (1998). The colour of money: earnings differentials among ethnic groups in Canada. Canadian Journal of Economics, 31, 518–548.
Pendakur, K., & Pendakur, R. (2002). Colour my world: Have earnings gaps for Canadian-born ethnic minorities changed over time?. Canadian Public Policy, 28, 489–512.
Portes, A., & Rumbaut, R.G. (2001). Legacies: The story of the immigrant second generation. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Portes, A., & Zhou, M. (1993). The new second generation: Segmented assimilation and its variants. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 530, 74–96.
Razack, S.H. (1998). Looking white people in the eye: Gender, race and culture in courtrooms and classrooms. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.
Reitz, J.G. (1998). Warmth of the Welcome: The social causes of economic success for immigrants in different nations and cities. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Reitz, J.G. (2001). Immigrant success in the knowledge economy: Institutional change and the immigrant experience in Canada, 1970–1995. Journal of Social Issues, 57, 579–613.
Reitz, J.G. (2003a). Educational expansion and the employment success of immigrants in the United States and Canada 1970–1990. In J.G. Reitz (Ed.), Host societies and the reception of immigrants (pp. 151–180). San Diego, CA: Center for Comparative Immigration Research, University of California.
Reitz, J.G. (Ed.). (2003b). Host societies and the reception of immigrants. San Diego, CA: Centre for Comparative Immigration Research, University of California.
Reitz, J.G. (2004). Canada: Immigration and nation-building in the transition to the knowledge economy. In W.A. Cornelius, P.L. Martin, J.F. Hollifield, & T. Tsuda (Eds.), Controlling immigration: A global perspective (2nd ed., pp. 97–133). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Reitz, J.G., & Lum, J. (in press). Immigration and diversity in a changing Canadian city: Social bases of intergroup relations in Toronto. In E. Fong (Ed.), Inside the mosaic. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.
Reitz, J.G., & Sklar, S.M. (1997). Culture, race, and the economic assimilation, of immigrants. Sociological Forum, 12, 233–277.
Reitz, J.G., & Verma, A. (2004). Immigration, race and labor: Unionization and wages in the Canadian labor market. Industrial Relations. 43, 4 (October) 835–54.
Rex, J., & Tomlinson, S. (1979). Colonial immigrants in a British city: A class analysis. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Rumbaut, R.G. (2002). Severed or sustained attachments? Language, identity, and imagined communiuties in the post-immigrant generation. In P. Levitt & M. Waters (Eds.), The changing face of home: The transnational lives of the second generation. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Rumbaut, R.G. (2003a, May 23–24, 2003). Conceptual and methodological problems in the study of the “immigrant second generation” in the United States. Paper presented at the Conceptual and Methodological Development in the Study of International Migration, Princeton University.
Rumbaut, R.G. (2003b, June 18–23). Children of immigrants longitudinal study. Paper presented at the conference on the Immigrant Second Generation in North America and Europe, Bellagio Conference Center, Bellagio, Italy.
Simmons, A.B., & Plaza, D.E. (1998). Breaking through the glass ceiling: The pursuit of university training among African-Caribbean migrants and their children in Toronto. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 30(3), 99–120.
Simon, R.J., & Lynch, J.P. (1999). A comparative assessment of public opinion toward immigrants and immigration policies. International Migration Review, 33(2(126)), 455–467.
Smith, R.C. (2002). Life course, generation, and social location as factors shaping second-generation transnational life. In P. Levitt & M. Waters (Eds.), The changing face of home: The transnational lives of the second generation. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Statistics Canada. (2003). Ethnocultural portrait of Canada (97F0010XCB01002). Ottawa: Author.
Stoffman, D. (2002). Who gets in: What’s wrong with Canada’s immigration program-And how to fix it. Toronton, ON: MacFarlane, Walter and Ross.
Swidinsky, R., & Swidinsky, M. (2002). The relative earnings of visible minorities in Canada: New evidence from the 1996 Census. Industrial Relations, 57, 630–659.
Tavares, A.J. (2000). From heritage to international languages: Gobalism and western Canadian trends in heritage language education. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 32(1), 156–171.
Wanner, R.A. (1998). Prejudice, profit, or productivity: Explaining returns to human capital among male immigrants to Canada. Canadian Ethnic Studies/Etudes Ethniques au Canada, 30(3), 24–55.
Worswick, C. (2001). School performance of the children of immigrants in Canada, 1994–98, Ottawa: Statistics Canada.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Reitz, J.G., Somerville, K. Institutional change and emerging cohorts of the “New” immigrant second generation: Implications for the integration of racial minorities in Canada. Int. Migration & Integration 5, 385–415 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-004-1021-y
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-004-1021-y
Key words
- Immigration
- Race relations
- Relations interraciales
- Host societies
- Second generation
- Institutional change
- Changement institutionnel
- Canadian society