Beyond culture: source country female labour force participation and the earnings of immigrant women

Abstract

Previous studies find a strong association between source country female labour force participation level and immigrant women’s labour market activity in the host country. This relationship is interpreted as the continued influence of source country gender role attitudes on women’s labour market behaviour. This article argues that the effect of source country female labour force participation rates extends beyond gender role attitudes by also contributing to labour market skills which help immigrant women navigate the host country labour market. When gender role attitudes are accounted for, source country female labour force participation rate is a strong predictor of immigrant women’s earnings in Canada. This is largely explained by differential occupational allocation in the host country.

Keywords

Canada earnings female labour force participation gender role attitudes immigrant women source country characteristics

Introduction

The economic integration of immigrants has been studied extensively by social scientists, with particular attention given to how structural elements of the host country affect their labour market outcomes. However, immigrants’ lives are also shaped by factors beyond the borders of their new society. The skills, behaviours and preferences developed in immigrants’ source countries continue to affect their experiences after migration (Levitt, 2005). This is particularly true for immigrant women, as their labour market participation is typically tied to cultural gender role attitudes. Although those who migrate from nations where women are largely excluded from the labour force are less likely to engage in the host country’s labour market (van Tubergen et al., 2004), increases in female labour migration in recent years indicate a growing need for information pertaining to immigrant women’s economic outcomes (Kofman and Raghuram, 2006).

Liversage’s (2009) study of highly skilled immigrant women in Denmark provides some insight into women’s labour market experiences after migration to a new country. She finds that many women have difficulty gaining recognition of their skills and also experience ‘gendered obstacles’ such as discrimination in the labour market and the gender division of labour within their families (Liversage, 2009: 122). However, some find alternative pathways into skilled employment by drawing on their existing skills and applying them in new ways (e.g. returning to school or seeking lower-level work in sectors with opportunities for upward mobility). While these results illustrate the strategies that migrant women use while navigating the host country labour market, they are limited to highly skilled women and cannot be generalized to immigrant women from different backgrounds.

This article addresses this issue by examining the labour market outcomes of immigrant women from a range of source countries, allowing an extensive investigation of the complexities of women’s labour market experiences after migration to a new society. This is particularly important within the Canadian context as women with diverse backgrounds and skill levels may engage in paid labour. A ‘family investment strategy’ has been observed among Canadian immigrants whereby wives obtain employment upon arrival in the host country to help finance the family while their husbands invest in other human capital enhancing activities (Baker and Benjamin, 1997: 705).

Variations in the economic outcomes of different immigrant groups are generally explained from either a micro-level or macro-level perspective. Micro-level explanations largely draw from human capital theory, attributing differences in economic outcomes to individual-level characteristics such as education or work experience. Disparities between source country groups are thereby attributed to an unequal distribution of these factors across groups. In comparison, macro-level theorists focus on ‘contextual effects’ which may directly affect the economic integration of certain groups, such as labour market structure, discrimination, or period of migration (van Tubergen et al., 2004: 707). Differences in immigrant women’s labour market participation have also been examined through a gender lens. Blau et al. (2011) observe a strong relationship between source country female labour force participation rates and immigrant women’s labour supply in the host country. They attribute this association to the enduring influence of source country gender role attitudes. However, the assumption that female labour force participation levels closely capture cultural gender attitudes has not been carefully examined.

National characteristics related to gender role attitudes may affect the type or amount of human capital immigrant women accumulate in their source countries. Given that a range of skills may be developed through education, work experience and socialization (Laroche et al., 1999), greater exposure to the labour market may enhance both conventional forms of human capital (e.g. higher levels of education) and unobserved characteristics that can contribute to individuals’ labour market success, such as cooperativeness, flexibility and ‘re-trainability’ (David and Lopez, 2001: 2). The development of these qualities prior to migration may play an important role in immigrant women’s economic outcomes in the host country.

This article examines whether the relationship between source country female labour force participation rates and immigrant women’s labour activities is wholly explained by cultural gender role attitudes and, if not, what other factors might play a role. Three questions are addressed:

What is the association between source country gender role attitudes and source country female labour force participation?

Does the relationship between source country female labour force participation and immigrant women’s labour force participation in Canada persist when source country gender role attitudes are controlled for?

Is source country female labour force participation rate also associated with immigrant women’s earnings in Canada?

Literature review

Sociological and economic research has increasingly focused on the relationships between national characteristics and individuals’ behaviours and outcomes. Comparative studies examine the potential effects of several country-level attributes, including level of economic development, educational quality and various cultural factors, on women’s housework and paid labour across countries (e.g. Batalova and Cohen, 2002; Fortin, 2005; Fuwa, 2004; Kan et al., 2011; Knudsen and Wærness, 2008; Nieuwenhuis et al., 2012). These studies suggest macro-level factors play a significant role in explaining women’s paid and unpaid labour activities.

The question of how national-level characteristics influence women’s labour activities has been extended to immigrant populations. These studies largely examine how source country characteristics related to gender roles, such as female labour force participation rates, are associated with the labour force participation of immigrant women in the host country (Antecol, 2000; Blau et al., 2011; Frank and Hou, 2015). The authors conclude that there is a ‘portable’ cultural factor that continues to influence women’s labour market decisions after migration (Antecol, 2000: 419). However, these studies do not address the potential relationship between source country female labour force participation and immigrant women’s outcomes after entering paid employment. If source country female labour force participation not only reflects gender role attitudes about women’s participation in paid labour, but also contributes to their labour market knowledge and skills, it might also influence immigrant women’s earnings.

Determining the extent to which a relationship between source country female labour force participation level and immigrant women’s economic outcomes is attributable to labour market skills is difficult to ascertain without acknowledging the direct effect that gender role attitudes may have on women’s earnings. While the association between gender role attitudes and women’s earnings is often attributed to sex-typed occupational choice (England, 1992; Reskin and Roos, 1990), others argue that the effect of gender role attitudes persists after controlling for occupation. Women with more ‘traditional’ (i.e. male breadwinner-female carer) gender role attitudes are found to obtain lower earnings even when occupational factors are taken into account (Christie-Mizell, 2006; Firestone et al., 1999; Stickney and Konrad, 2007).

These studies attribute the relationship between gender role attitudes and women’s labour market outcomes to differences in work behaviours and salary expectations. Women with more traditional gender role attitudes may be less assertive or motivated in pursuing rises and promotions (Firestone et al., 1999; Stickney and Konrad, 2007). They may also devote less time or effort to their paid work to ‘conserve energy’ for their household responsibilities (Stickney and Konrad, 2007: 803). Decreased productivity in the workplace and fewer opportunities to advance to higher paying positions may result, leading to lower earnings than other women. Furthermore, Judge and Livingston (2008) suggest that women who place greater value on familial responsibilities over their financial role in the household may be more satisfied with lower pay than women with more egalitarian gender attitudes, resulting in earnings differences despite similar occupational choices.

Immigrant women’s economic outcomes in the host country might also be related to their source country’s labour market structure. Since a nation’s labour market norms and institutional practices affect individuals’ training and career development (Zikic et al., 2010), immigrant women from different countries of origin are likely to vary in their skills and orientation towards work. For example, women from nations with higher levels of female labour force participation and educational attainment may have an increased expectation of engaging in paid labour throughout adulthood and invest more in ‘market oriented’ training (Blau, 1992: 98). Moreover, women who migrate from nations with labour markets similar to that of the host country may have work experience and skills that are more transferable to the host country’s labour market, facilitating better employment outcomes.

High source country female labour force participation rates could also increase women’s familiarity with job search methods that are effective in locating more highly remunerated positions. While some immigrant groups rely primarily on ethnic social networks to find employment, an approach associated with lower paying work, others use more formal processes through which higher-status jobs are typically obtained (e.g. Behtoui, 2008; Frijters et al., 2005; Sanders et al., 2002; van Tubergen, 2011). Greater competition for jobs in source countries with high female labour force participation might also enable women to better contend with sizeable competition for higher paying employment in the host country.

Research focus

Canadian immigration research consistently indicates that source country matters to immigrants’ labour market outcomes (e.g. Boyd and Thomas, 2002; Picot, 2004; Reitz and Sklar, 1997). However, these studies typically employ source country dummy variables, obscuring the varying influences of a range of national-level characteristics. This study moves beyond country of origin indicators to assess specific measurements of source country characteristics, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of the association between national characteristics and immigrant women’s economic outcomes.

A unique feature of this analysis is the inclusion of both source country female labour force participation rate and an explicit measure of source country gender role attitudes to account for group differences in immigrant women’s labour market outcomes. Previous studies assume that source country female labour force participation levels closely capture gender role attitudes; and that the association between source country female labour force participation levels and immigrant women’s labour market activities in the host country primarily reflects the influence of gender role attitudes formed early in life. If these assumptions are correct, a strong correlation between source country female labour force participation levels and gender role attitudes will be observed. The effect of source country female labour force participation rates on immigrant women’s labour activities in the host country will also be significantly reduced when source country gender role attitudes are controlled. If the correlation is weak and if the source country female labour force participation coefficient changes little when accounting for gender role attitudes, this will indicate that source country female labour force participation captures other factors that facilitate immigrant women’s economic integration. Three other source country variables are also included to control for additional variations in labour markets across countries.

Although previous studies primarily focus on the relationship between source country female labour force participation and immigrant women’s labour force participation in the host country, the decision of women to participate in the labour market is only the initial stage of their labour market activities. Therefore, this study also examines immigrant women’s earnings. If a high level of source country female labour force participation also improves women’s labour market skills and ability to navigate job opportunities in modern economies (i.e. economies based on a system of businesses where individuals compete for jobs), a significant relationship with earnings will be expected as these qualities are likely to aid in the acquisition of higher paying positions.

Methodology

Data

This study employs the combined May and November files of the 2006 to 2012 Labour Force Survey (LFS) collected by Statistics Canada (details available at http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=3701). The LFS is Canada’s official source of monthly estimates of total employment and unemployment. It collects information on the labour market activities of the population aged 15 years or older, excluding residents of collective dwellings, Aboriginal settlements and full-time members of the Canadian Forces. Monthly wage information of employees (since 1997) and immigration status (since 2006) is also provided. The monthly survey contains information on over 120,000 individuals, nearly 0.5 per cent of the Canadian population aged 15 and older. In any given month, the LFS sample is divided into six rotation panels, recruited into the survey one month apart. Each panel remains in the survey for six consecutive months, so up to five sixths of sample respondents overlap in two consecutive months. It is only when they are six months apart that the two monthly surveys have no overlap of sample respondents. Therefore, the May and November data contain all unique respondents in a given year.

The selected sample included individuals who immigrated to Canada as adults (age 20 or older at the year of immigration) to ensure a long period of exposure to their source country’s culture and labour market. Immigrants who arrived before the 1990s were excluded because most had passed their prime working age by the end of the 2000s. Immigrants who had been living in Canada less than one year were also excluded to ensure they had at least one year to adjust to the Canadian labour market. Furthermore, only immigrants aged 25 to 64 at the time of the survey and who were not permanently unable to work were selected. Finally, to merge individual-level data with source country gender role attitudes data from the World Values Survey (WVS), immigrants from source countries that did not participate in the WVS over the 1994 to 2007 period were excluded (see the following Measures section for details). This reduced the LFS sample size of immigrant women by about 4900 or 14 per cent.¹ The final sample, used to examine immigrant women’s labour force participation, included 29,811 women. A subsample of 17,089 immigrant women who were paid employees with positive earnings in the LFS reference week was used to model immigrant earnings. The immigrant sample selected from the LFS was merged with data on source country attributes using detailed country of birth and year of arrival as the link keys.² Thus, immigrants in the LFS were assigned a set of source country attributes measured at their year of arrival in Canada.

Measures

Two outcome variables were examined. The first was labour force participation, coded ‘1’ if a respondent was either employed or unemployed and ‘0’ if the respondent was not in the labour force. Previous studies have mostly relied on this outcome to examine the association between source country gender roles and immigrant women’s labour supply in the host country. Although a significant relationship has consistently been found between these variables, this outcome was examined to ensure that the data used in this study replicated previous results. The second outcome variable was log hourly wages that workers usually received at their main job. Hourly wages were calculated from the information on weekly wages/salary and usual paid work hours per week.

The focal explanatory variable was source country female labour force participation rate, calculated for individuals aged 15 and older.³ An alternative measure was the ratio of female labour force participation rate to male labour force participation rate. This relative measure could mitigate the impact of possible cross-country differences in the definition and measurement of labour force participation since such problems might affect women’s and men’s labour force participation rates similarly (Antecol, 2000; Blau et al., 2011). It could also alleviate the effects of cross-country differences in socio-demographic and labour market institutional factors that affect the overall labour force participation rates for women and men. Model estimates based on these two measures reached the same findings (results available upon request). Only the female labour force participation rate results are presented as they can be interpreted more intuitively.

The key control variable was an explicit measure of source country gender role attitudes derived from the World Values Survey. The WVS collects measures of people’s beliefs, values and attitudes from nationally representative samples. Questions related to gender role attitudes are available for the 83 countries that participated in at least one of waves 3 to 5 between 1994 and 2007.⁴ Three questions were used to derive the gender role attitudes scale:

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? When jobs are scarce, men should have more right to a job than women;

Do you agree strongly, agree, disagree, or disagree strongly with the following statement? A university education is more important for a boy than for a girl;

Do you agree strongly, agree, disagree, or disagree strongly with the following statement? On the whole, men make better political leaders than women do.⁵

These statements reflect beliefs about whether women should have equal access to jobs and higher education and whether they have equal leadership abilities as do men. This scale was constructed from the mean of the three items. It has good reliability, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.65. The values of the scale ranged from 1.83 to 3.59, with a mean of 2.70. For countries that collected data for this scale on two or three occasions, the average was used. Although data limitations prevented a measurement of source country gender role attitudes in the year of arrival, the ranking of gender role attitudes across countries were rather consistent over time. This was evident from the near perfect correlation between the same measures among countries that collected the WVS data on two or more occasions. Similar results were also obtained by standardizing the average country-level gender role scores across available countries in a given WVS wave and then taking the average across the three waves for a given country (tables are available on request).

Three additional source country characteristics were included as controls for factors that might be related to immigrants’ readiness to participate in the host country labour market. Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in 2005 US dollars was used as an indicator of a source country’s overall level of economic development.⁶ Immigrants from more developed countries are more likely to participate in Canada’s labour market because of similarities in the economic structure. A dummy variable indicating whether English or French, Canada’s two official languages, was an official language in the source country was also included.⁷ The third source country variable was a dummy variable indicating whether the source country was a Western country (European nations, the USA, Australia and New Zealand). These three variables were likely to be correlated with source country female labour force participation rates and with immigrants’ preparedness for work in the host country.

At the individual level, several demographic variables were included: level of education, age at immigration, years since immigration and its squared term (constructed as squared deviation from its mean) and geographic region of residence. Levels of education were coded as four dummy variables: less than high school, high school graduation, some post-secondary education and graduate degree, with bachelor’s degree as the reference group. The geographic region variable distinguished between the eight largest metropolitan areas (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and the next five largest metropolitan areas combined – Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Hamilton), Atlantic region, Quebec (excluding Montreal), Ontario (excluding Toronto, Ottawa and Hamilton), Saskatchewan and Manitoba combined (excluding Winnipeg), Alberta (excluding Calgary and Edmonton) and British Columbia (excluding Vancouver). Toronto was the reference category. Marital status, spouse’s employment status if married and number of children younger than age six (the age at which children attend full day school) were also included in the labour force participation model. Full-time/part-time status (1=full-time, 0=part-time) and job tenure (years) with the current employer were included in the wage model.

Industrial and occupational distributions were also entered as key variables in the wage model to test whether the association between source country female labour force participation levels and immigrant women’s wages worked through their ability to navigate job opportunities in a modern economy. Industrial distribution was coded into five categories: agriculture; primary industries, utility, construction and manufacturing; trade and transportation; finance, professional and business services; and other services. Occupational distribution was based on the first two digits of the 2006 National Occupational Classification for Statistics (NOC-S) after combining some groups with small sample sizes.⁸ The occupational distribution variable consisted of 41 categories.

Models

For all working age immigrant women, three probit models were estimated to predict the likelihood of labour force participation. They were specified as:

P (Y_{i j} = 1 | x) = Φ (α_{g} X_{j}^{g} + β X_{j}^{c} + γ X_{i})

(1)

P (Y_{i j} = 1 | x) = Φ (α_{l} X_{j}^{l} + β X_{j}^{c} + γ X_{i})

(2)

P (Y_{i j} = 1 | x) = Φ (α_{l} X_{j}^{l} + α_{g} X_{j}^{g} + β X_{j}^{c} + γ X_{i})

(3)

where P(Y_ij = 1|x) is the probability of immigrant i from source country j participating in the labour force given a set of characteristics (X); ϕ is the standard normal cumulative density function. X^g_j represents source country gender role attitudes, X^l_j represents source country female labour force participation rates; and X^c_j represents the other three source country control variables. X_i are individual-level variables as discussed in the previous section. The first model (1) examines the effect of source country gender role attitudes in the absence of source country female labour force participation rate, while the second model (2) examines the effect of the source country female labour force participation rate in the absence of source country gender role attitudes. The third model (3) examines the effects of the two factors in the presence of each other.

Similar ordinary least squares (OLS) models were estimated for immigrant female paid employees, using log hourly earnings as the dependent variable. Industry and occupation variables were included in an additional model with the other control variables to test whether the observed effect of source country female labour force participation decreased substantially after differences in industrial and occupational distributions were taken into account. A large decrease in the source country female labour force participation coefficient would imply that any earnings advantages among immigrants from high female labour force participation countries were at least partially attributable to their favourable allocation in the industrial and occupational structures.

Since source country attributes were measured at the group level, regression models with cluster-robust standard errors were estimated to correct within-cluster correlation and heteroskedasticity (Angrist and Pischke, 2009; Wooldridge, 2003). This differed from the hierarchical linear model (HLM) approach which assumes homoskedastic errors both at the individual and cluster levels. Cluster-robust standard errors assume no particular forms of within-cluster correlation and heteroskedasticity. The cluster in this study was based on the combination of source country (83 countries) and year at immigration (a total of 22 years). Since there was no observation for some year-country combinations, there were 1459 clusters in total.⁹

Results

Source country female labour force participation and gender role attitudes

Among the 83 source countries with gender role attitudes data, a moderate correlation between source country female labour force participation and source country gender role attitudes was observed (Pearson r=0.42, p<0.001). Figure 1 plots the association between these two variables. Most countries with low gender role attitudes scores also had very low levels of female labour force participation. These countries include, in ascending order of gender attitudes score, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco and Pakistan. However, countries with very high female labour force participation rates only ranked in the middle of the distribution of gender role attitudes. The highest female labour force participation rates were located in sub-Saharan Africa (Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania) where women traditionally provide the majority of the labour in agricultural production and processing and men primarily engage in labour that generates cash income. The high female labour force participation in these countries is not closely related to gender equality in broad socioeconomic aspects; rather, the gender division of non-domestic labour is shaped by patriarchal norms (Doss, 1999). Furthermore, countries with the highest gender role attitudes scores (Sweden, Norway, France and Netherlands) had only moderate levels of female labour force participation. Thus, while very low gender role attitudes scores and very low levels of female labour force participation go in tandem, high levels of gender role equality in terms of a society’s broad socioeconomic characteristics do not necessarily indicate that women participate in the labour market to the same extent as men. Indeed, in many countries similar labour force participation levels between women and men are a result of necessity rather than choice.

Figure 1

Association between source country gender role attitudes and source country female labour force participation rates

Source country female labour force participation rates were also correlated with other characteristics that may be relevant to immigrant women’s labour market outcomes. Table 1 presents descriptive statistics for the main variables by source country female labour force participation level. For the purposes of this table, source countries are grouped according to ‘high’ (defined as 0.5 or 50%) or ‘low’ (less than 0.5) female labour force participation rates. Note that in the multivariate models, the values for this variable remain unique to each source country in a given year of immigrant arrival, ranging from 0.11 to 0.87 with a mean of 0.49.

Table 1.

Descriptive statistics for immigrant women by level of source country female labour force participation.

	All immigrant women		Paid employees
	Source countries with low female labour force participation rates	Source countries with high female labour force participation rates	Source countries with low female labour force participation rates	Source countries with high female labour force participation rates
Source country characteristics
Female labour force participation rate	0.382	0.618	0.401	0.614
Gender role attitudes score	2.444	2.668	2.452	2.673
Logged GDP per capita	7.633	7.849	7.589	7.855
English or French official language	0.606	0.219	0.655	0.244
Western countries	0.118	0.388	0.128	0.414
Individual-level outcomes
Labour force participation rate	0.701	0.737	…	…
Hourly wages	…	…	18.847	21.056
Individual-level control variables
Less than high school	0.091	0.072	0.050	0.058
High school graduation	0.155	0.160	0.132	0.139
Some post-secondary education	0.275	0.293	0.304	0.289
Bachelor’s degree	0.324	0.301	0.352	0.314
Graduate degree	0.154	0.175	0.163	0.200
Age at immigration	33.273	33.582	32.501	32.644
Years since immigration	8.627	8.948	8.970	9.301
Divorced, separated or widowed	0.087	0.104	0.088	0.112
Never married	0.089	0.063	0.113	0.076
Number of children aged under 6	0.338	0.293	0.253	0.243
Working full-time	…	…	0.807	0.822
Tenure in years	…	…	4.568	4.684
Sample size	16263	13548	9286	7803

Note: … not applicable.

Data source: 2006 to 2012 Labour Force Survey, Statistics Canada.

About 55 per cent (16,263 out of 29,811) of immigrant women in the sample came from source countries where the female labour force participation rate was less than 50 per cent with an average of 38.2 per cent (Table 1). Countries with low levels of female labour force participation also had lower levels of economic development, were more likely to have English or French as the official language and were less likely to be a Western country.

Immigrant women from low female labour force participation nations had lower labour force participation rates and lower hourly wages in Canada compared to those from high female labour force participation nations. However, the two groups of immigrant women were similar in terms of education level, age at immigration, years since immigration, full-time status and job tenure. These similarities are likely to reflect Canada’s points system of immigrant selection which focuses on individual-level characteristics regardless of source country.

Source country female labour force participation rates and immigrant women’s labour force participation in Canada

Figure 2 plots the average labour force participation rates of immigrant women by female labour force participation rates in their respective source countries. There is a large variation in female labour force participation across immigrant groups. While rates of female labour force participation in Canada were between 60 and 80 per cent for most groups, some had rates lower than 50 per cent (e.g. Pakistan, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan) or higher than 85 per cent (e.g. Philippines, Belarus, Romania, Albania and Zimbabwe). The chart also shows that the variation in immigrant women’s labour force participation rates in Canada is positively associated with the source country female labour force participation rate.

Figure 2

Association between immigrant women’s labour force participation in Canada and source country female labour force participation

The bivariate associations in Figure 2 do not control for group differences in source country gender role attitudes, other source country attributes or variations in socio-demographic composition. This lack was addressed with probit models (Table 2) which showed the marginal effects of the explanatory variables when other variables in the model were held at their means. The marginal effect for dummy variables is the difference in the predicted average probability of participating in the labour force between the given category and the reference category. For instance, in Model 1 (Table 2), the marginal effect associated with having less than a high school education implies that the predicted probability of participating in the labour force among immigrant women with this level of education was -0.243, or 24.3 percentage points lower than immigrant women with a bachelor’s degree. For continuous variables, the marginal effect reflects changes in the predicted probability associated with a one unit change in the explanatory variable.

Table 2.

Probit regression predicting the probability of labour force participation among immigrants.

	Model 1		Model 2		Model 3
	df/dx	Robust standard error	df/dx	Robust standard error	df/dx	Robust standard error
Source country characteristics
Gender role attitudes	0.075 ***	0.019	…	…	−0.045	0.023
Source country female labour force participation rate	…	…	0.313 ***	0.040	0.353 ***	0.050
Logged GDP per capita	−0.019 ***	0.004	−0.011 **	0.004	−0.006	0.004
English or French official language	0.051 ***	0.013	0.090 ***	0.011	0.095 ***	0.011
Western countries (reference: Non-Western countries)	0.072 ***	0.010	0.072 ***	0.010	0.078 ***	0.010
Individual-level characteristics
Education level (reference: bachelor’s degree)
Less than high school	−0.243 ***	0.017	−0.233 ***	0.016	−0.227 ***	0.016
High school graduation	−0.143 ***	0.011	−0.140 ***	0.011	−0.137 ***	0.011
Some post-secondary education	−0.028 ***	0.009	−0.032 ***	0.009	−0.031 ***	0.009
Graduate degree	0.030 **	0.011	0.035 **	0.011	0.037 ***	0.010
Age at immigration	−0.007 ***	0.001	−0.008 ***	0.001	−0.008 ***	0.001
Years since immigration	0.007 ***	0.001	0.007 ***	0.001	0.007 ***	0.001
Years since immigration squared	−0.001 ***	0.000	−0.001 ***	0.000	−0.001 ***	0.000
Geographic region (reference: Toronto)
Atlantic region	0.002	0.017	0.001	0.017	0.003	0.017
Quebec (excluding Montreal)	0.008	0.018	0.026	0.017	0.033	0.017
Ontario (excluding Toronto, Ottawa and Hamilton)	−0.029 **	0.010	−0.023 *	0.010	−0.021 *	0.010
Saskatchewan and Manitoba (excluding Winnipeg)	0.046 **	0.015	0.039 *	0.015	0.038 *	0.015
Alberta (excluding Calgary and Edmonton)	0.033	0.018	0.027	0.019	0.029	0.019
British Columbia (excluding Vancouver)	0.003	0.015	−0.001	0.015	0.000	0.015
Montreal	−0.020	0.014	−0.006	0.014	−0.004	0.014
Vancouver	−0.021 *	0.010	−0.035 **	0.010	−0.036 ***	0.010
Other five large metropolitan areas	0.048 ***	0.009	0.045 ***	0.009	0.045 ***	0.009
Marital status (reference: married, spouse working)
Married, spouse not working	−0.115 ***	0.010	−0.115 ***	0.010	−0.116 ***	0.010
Divorced, separated or widowed	0.019	0.011	0.020	0.011	0.021	0.011
Single	0.054 ***	0.013	0.048 ***	0.013	0.048 ***	0.013
Number of children aged under 6	−0.162 ***	0.007	−0.160 ***	0.006	−0.160 ***	0.006
Survey year fixed effect	Included		Included		Included
Sample size	29811		29811		29811
Pseudo R squared	0.103		0.110		0.110

Notes: … not included. * significant at p<0.05, **p<0.01, *** p<0.001.

Data source: 2006 to 2012 Labour Force Survey, Statistics Canada.

Results from Models 1 and 2 (Table 2) show that, after controlling for other source country attributes and individual-level characteristics, source country gender role attitudes and source country female labour force participation were each positively associated with immigrant women’s labour force participation in Canada. However, when both were entered in Model 3 (Table 2), the source country gender role attitudes coefficient became not significant while the effect of source country female labour force participation rate remained positive and significant. Thus, the association between source country gender role attitudes and immigrant women’s labour force participation was accounted for by source country female labour force participation level. That is, the effect of source country gender role attitudes works through its moderate correlation with source country female labour force participation rate. The coefficient (Model 3, Table 2) indicates that a 0.5 point increase in source country female labour force participation rate, which is close to the difference between Pakistan (17%) and Lebanon (20%) at the low end and China (70%) and Vietnam (71%) at the high-middle end, is associated with a 0.177 point (or 17.7 percentage points) increase in immigrant women’s labour force participation rate (i.e. one half of the coefficient) when other variables are held at their means.

Among the other source country attributes, immigrant women from a Western country or whose source country’s official language was English or French had higher levels of labour force participation (Model 3, Table 2). However, the level of source country economic development was not significantly associated with immigrant women’s participation in Canada’s labour market.

At the individual level, education was strongly and positively associated with immigrant women’s labour force participation. The combined effect of years since immigration and its squared term indicates that the labour force participation rate increased slowly with more years in Canada, reaching a plateau about 13 years after immigration. Age at immigration and number of young children were both negatively associated with immigrant women’s labour force participation. Married immigrant women whose spouse was not working had a lower level of labour force participation than those who were married with a working spouse, probably due to assortative mating by labour market behaviours (Ultee et al., 1988).

Source country female labour force participation rates and immigrant women’s wages

Figure 3 plots the average log hourly wages of immigrant women in Canada by source country female labour force participation rates. A large variation in log hourly wages was apparent across immigrant groups. While most had hourly wages between CAD$15 (log hourly wage 2.7) and CAD$22 (log hourly wage 3.1), nine groups of immigrant women were above this range and five groups were below it.¹⁰ The variation in immigrant women’s wages was positively associated with the source country female labour force participation rate.

Figure 3.

Association between immigrant women’s hourly wages in Canada and source country female labour force participation.

Table 3 presents the regression models for immigrant women’s log hourly wages. Models 1 and 2 show that after other source country attributes and individual-level characteristics were controlled, source country gender role attitudes and source country female labour force participation rates, in the absence of each other, were strongly associated with immigrant women’s earnings. When both source country attributes were included in the model (Model 3, Table 3), their coefficients decreased in size but remained significant. This suggests that source country gender attitudes and source country female labour force participation levels are independently associated with immigrant women’s earnings, even after accounting for their overlapping effects. The results indicate that a 0.5 point increase in the source country female labour force participation rate corresponds to an 8.5 per cent increase in wages (i.e. one half of the coefficient).

Table 3.

OLS regression predicting log hourly wages of immigrant women.

	Model 1		Model 2		Model 3		Model 4
	Coefficient	Robust standard error	Coefficient	Robust standard error	Coefficient	Robust standard error	Coefficient	Robust standard error
Intercept	2.297 ***	0.054	2.349 ***	0.051	2.286 ***	0.054	3.014 ***	0.044
Source country characteristics
Gender role attitudes	0.106 ***	0.020	…	…	0.058 ***	0.022	0.042 *	0.017
Source country female labour force participation rate	…	…	0.218***	0.038	0.170 ***	0.044	0.038	0.031
Logged GDP per capita	0.032 ***	0.005	0.045 ***	0.004	0.038 ***	0.005	0.013 **	0.004
English or French official language	0.000	0.011	0.023 *	0.011	0.018	0.011	0.018 *	0.008
Western countries (reference: non-Western countries)	0.053 ***	0.013	0.065 ***	0.013	0.057 ***	0.013	0.043 ***	0.011
Individual-level characteristics
Education level (reference: bachelor’s degree)
Less than high school	−0.409 ***	0.017	−0.400 ***	0.017	−0.407 ***	0.017	−0.130 ***	0.014
High school graduation	−0.312***	0.014	−0.305 ***	0.014	−0.310 ***	0.014	−0.074***	0.011
Some post-secondary education	−0.154 ***	0.011	−0.155 ***	0.011	−0.155 ***	0.011	−0.041 ***	0.008
Graduate degree	0.172 ***	0.014	0.177 ***	0.014	0.175 ***	0.014	0.072 ***	0.012
Age at immigration	−0.003***	0.001	−0.003 ***	0.001	−0.003 ***	0.001	−0.001	0.000
Years since immigration	0.008 ***	0.001	0.008 ***	0.001	0.008 ***	0.001	0.005 ***	0.001
Years since immigration squared	−0.001 ***	0.000	−0.001 ***	0.000	−0.001 ***	0.000	−0.001 ***	0.000
Working full-time (reference: working part time)	0.126 ***	0.011	0.122 ***	0.011	0.122 ***	0.011	0.042 ***	0.008
Tenure in years	0.020 ***	0.001	0.020 ***	0.001	0.020 ***	0.001	0.015 ***	0.001
Geographic region (reference: Toronto)
Atlantic region	−0.090 ***	0.021	−0.086 ***	0.021	−0.090 ***	0.021	−0.116 ***	0.018
Quebec (excluding Montreal)	−0.039	0.026	−0.017	0.025	−0.027	0.025	−0.045 *	0.020
Ontario (excluding Toronto, Ottawa and Hamilton)	−0.017	0.012	−0.013	0.012	−0.016	0.012	−0.009	0.010
Saskatchewan and Manitoba (excluding Winnipeg)	0.005	0.019	0.003	0.019	0.003	0.019	−0.006	0.015
Alberta (excluding Calgary and Edmonton)	0.061 *	0.024	0.060 *	0.024	0.059 *	0.024	0.067 **	0.020
British Columbia (excluding Vancouver)	0.002	0.018	0.003	0.018	0.001	0.018	0.024	0.014
Montreal	−0.065 **	0.017	−0.055 ***	0.017	−0.058 ***	0.017	−0.070 ***	0.013
Vancouver	−0.034 ***	0.012	−0.040 **	0.012	−0.039 **	0.012	−0.021 *	0.010
Other five large metropolitan areas	0.065 ***	0.011	0.063 ***	0.011	0.062 ***	0.011	0.050 ***	0.009
Survey year fixed effect	Included		Included		Included		Included
Industry fixed effect	Not included		Not included		Not included		Included
Occupation fixed effect	Not included		Not included		Not included		Included
Sample size	17089		17089		17089		17089
Adjusted R squared	0.245		0.246		0.247		0.499

Notes: … not included. * significant at p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001.

Data source: 2006 to 2012 Labour Force Survey, Statistics Canada.

Additionally, GDP per capita and coming from a Western country were strongly associated with increased earnings (Model 3, Table 3). The latter variable probably captures the wage difference between whites and racial minority groups since source country economic development and individual-level demographic variables are controlled for. Unfortunately this hypothesis cannot be tested here as the LFS does not collect information on racial groups.

When industrial and occupational distributions were included in the model, the coefficient for source country female labour force participation decreased by three-quarters and became not significant (Model 4, Table 3). This implies that the higher earnings of immigrant women from countries with higher female labour force participation are primarily attributable to their greater concentration in high paying industries and occupations. That is, differential allocation of industries and occupations accounts for the association between source country female labour force participation and immigrant women’s earnings. In comparison, the coefficient for source country gender role attitudes decreased by about one-quarter and remained statistically significant when industry and occupation were controlled for (Model 4, Table 3). Therefore, the effect of source country gender role attitudes on immigrant women’s earnings does not act primarily through industrial/occupational allocation, but rather through career advancement within the same industry/occupation.

A comparison of the top occupations (at the two-digit level of the 2006 NOC-S) for immigrant women from countries with low (below 0.5) and high (0.5 or higher) female labour force participation rates provides more detail about variations in their occupational distribution (Table 4). Although ‘clerical’ and ‘elemental sales and service’ occupations were the top two occupational groups for women from both sets of source countries, a greater proportion of women from low female labour force participation countries held these jobs than women from countries with high female labour force participation. Additionally, several occupations were not common between the two groups. While 7 per cent of women from countries with high female labour force participation worked in professional occupations in the natural and applied sciences – highly paid occupations – this group was not among the top 10 occupations of women from countries with low female labour force participation. Moreover, two low paying occupational groups appeared only in the top occupations of women from low female labour force participation nations (childcare and home support workers, cashiers). Within the same occupation, women from countries with high female labour force participation tended to have higher wages than women in the comparison group, although the gap was not large (Table 4). For instance, the wage gap in the top two occupations was between 4 and 6 per cent. Therefore, the lower average wages among women from countries with low female labour force participation were primarily due to their relative concentration in low paying occupations.

Table 4.

Per cent share and average hourly wages of the top ten 2-digit occupations among employed immigrant women.

NOC-S Code		% share	Hourly wages (CAD$)
	Source countries with low female labour force participation rates
B5	Clerical occupations	13.8	17.3
G9	Elemental sales and service occupations*	11.1	12.9
D3	Assisting occupations in support of health services	6.0	19.3
G8	Childcare and home support workers	4.6	13.9
E2	Paralegals, social services workers	4.6	18.3
El	Teachers and professors	4.2	28.2
Jl	Machine operators in manufacturing	3.8	14.2
BO	Professional occupations in business and finance	3.7	26.8
G3	Cashiers	3.7	11.6
G2	Retail salespersons and sales clerks	3.7	12.3
	Source countries with high female labour force participation rates
B5	Clerical occupations	12.2	18.4
G9	Elemental sales and service occupations*	10.0	13.4
CO	Professional occupations in natural and applied sciences	7.3	33.3
BO	Professional occupations in business and finance	6.2	27.6
El	Teachers and professors	4.2	31.3
D3	Assisting occupations in support of health services	4.2	18.0
Jl	Machine operators in manufacturing	4.0	14.1
E2	Paralegals, social services workers	3.8	19.1
CI	Technical occupations related to natural and applied sciences	3.7	25.2
G2	Retail salespersons and sales clerks	3.0	13.0

Data source: 2006 to 2012 Labour Force Survey, Statistics Canada.

Elemental sales and service occupations include barbers and hairstylists, cleaners and janitors, food counter and kitchen helpers, butchers and bakers.

The allocation of industries and occupations was also an important mechanism through which other variables affected immigrant women’s wages. This is evident from the large decreases in their coefficients (Model 4, Table 3). The inclusion of industrial and occupational distributions reduced the coefficient sizes for GDP per capita, coming from a Western country, education level, age at immigration and years since immigration. Thus, immigrant women who emigrated from developed economies and Western countries, had higher educational levels, arrived at a younger age and had resided in Canada longer were more likely to work in high paying industries and occupations, resulting in higher earnings.

Discussion

This study investigated whether the relationship between source country female labour force participation rates and immigrant women’s labour market outcomes extends beyond the influence of cultural gender role attitudes. The results indicated that the effect of source country gender role attitudes on immigrant women’s participation in the host country’s labour market functions through its relationship with the source country female labour force participation rate. However, source country gender role attitudes and source country female labour force participation had independent effects on immigrant women’s earnings in the host country. The source country female labour force participation rate affected immigrant women’s economic outcomes through occupational allocation.

Across source countries, high levels of attitudes favouring gender equality were not necessarily associated with high female labour force participation. Only a moderate correlation between the source country female labour force participation rate and source country gender role attitudes was found. Nations with the highest female labour force participation rates generally had less egalitarian gender role attitudes. Women in these nations typically work in the ‘peripheral segment’ of the labour market, characterized by non-standard or marginal work (Buchmann et al., 2010: 283; Doss, 1999).

Immigrant women’s labour force participation in the host country was also examined. When source country female labour force participation and source country gender role attitude variables were both included in the model examining immigrant women’s labour force participation in Canada, only the source country female labour force participation rate was statistically significant. Therefore, source country gender role attitudes affected immigrant women’s participation in the host country’s labour market through their correlation with source country female labour force participation rates. This result supports previous studies that attribute the positive relationship between source country female labour force participation rates and immigrant women’s labour supply in the host country to cultural gender attitudes (Antecol, 2000; Blau et al., 2011; Frank and Hou, 2015).

The results also revealed a positive relationship between source country female labour force participation rates and immigrant women’s earnings in Canada. A concentration of women from high female labour force participation nations in higher paying industries and occupations largely accounted for this association. The key role of occupational differences indicates that women from high female labour force participation nations may develop better labour market skills and unobserved human capital that is useful in obtaining higher paying employment in the host country (e.g. more work experience, greater familiarity with high paying firms or industries, a better understanding of the qualifications needed to enter high paying occupations). Occupational differences between immigrant groups may result from variations in women’s access to the educational systems or ‘work related training’ in their source countries (Boyd, 1984: 1094). Women are also more likely to be represented across a wider range of occupational groups in nations with high levels of female labour force participation (Semyonov, 1980).

Similarities between the labour market structures of the source and host countries might also provide advantages such as more marketable or transferable skills. Women who primarily worked in informal labour markets prior to migration may face greater obstacles when navigating a host country’s formal labour market (Chen, 2008). For example, immigrant women from agrarian economies may have more difficulty obtaining high paying jobs if the host country is primarily a ‘knowledge based’ economy. Moreover, a smaller degree of ‘cultural distance’ from the host society might translate into behaviours which facilitate better employment outcomes (Höhne and Koopmans, 2010: 6; Liversage, 2009; Zikic et al., 2010). Women from nations with high female labour force participation may also benefit from greater labour market competition which could influence their educational or occupational choices, create greater motivation to obtain higher level positions or provide more familiarity with job search strategies that aid in obtaining higher paying employment.

Interestingly, the significant and positive relationship between source country gender role attitudes and immigrant women’s earnings persisted when occupation and industry were controlled for. This suggests that gender role attitudes affect immigrant women’s earnings through a different mechanism, echoing previous studies that find a direct relationship between the two (Firestone et al., 1999; Stickney and Konrad, 2007). The higher earnings obtained by women from nations with more gender equal attitudes may then be attributable to higher salary expectations, greater involvement in the workplace or increased levels of assertiveness in pursuing promotions or pay rises. This result will be of particular interest to gender theorists and would benefit from further research.

Immigrant women’s economic integration is a process which often involves cultural considerations. Previous research examining the role of culture in immigrant women’s labour market activity primarily focused on how cultural gender role attitudes, measured by level of female labour force participation in the source country, influence their decision to enter the host country’s labour market. However, the relationship between the source country female labour force participation rate and immigrant women’s economic outcomes extends beyond gender role attitudes. This article indicates that higher levels of source country female labour force participation may provide women with labour market skills that enable them to obtain higher paying occupations in the host country. Further investigation into how different facets of immigrant women’s source countries affect their labour market knowledge and skills could provide additional insight into the economic integration of immigrant women from diverse backgrounds.

Footnotes

Appendix

Table A1

Regression model predicting log hourly wages of immigrant women with Heckman correction for selection into employment.

	Coefficient	Robust standard error
Earnings model
Intercept	3.023***	0.049
Source country female labour force participation rate	0.028	0.461
Gender role attitudes	0.044*	0.011
Logged GDP per capita	0.013**	0.002
English or French official language in source country	0.015	0.148
Western countries	0.040***	0.001
Less than high school	−0.124***	0.000
High school graduation	−0.071* * *	0.000
Some post-secondary education	−0.040***	0.000
Graduate degree	0.072***	0.000
Age at immigration	−0.001	0.157
Years since immigration	0.005***	0.000
Years since immigration squared	−0.001***	0.000
Working full-time	0.042***	0.000
Tenure in years	0.015***	0.000
Selection model (Probit)
Intercept	0.967***	0.152
Source country female labour force participation rate	1.224***	0.160
Gender role attitudes	−0.156*	0.077
Logged GDP per capita	−0.008	0.014
English or French official language in source country	0.361***	0.041
Western countries	0.249***	0.035
Less than high school	−0.658***	0.043
High school graduation	−0.391***	0.031
Some post-secondary education	−0.105***	0.028
Graduate degree	0.086*	0.037
Age at immigration	−0.024***	0.002
Years since immigration	0.022***	0.003
Years since immigration squared	−0.003***	0.000
Married, spouse not working	−0.308***	0.029
Divorced, separated or widowed	0.051	0.038
Single	0.140**	0.045
Number of children aged under six	−0.462***	0.020
Sample size	31741
/athrho	−0.044	0.107

Data source: 2006 to 2012 Labour Force Survey, Statistics Canada.

Notes: * significant at p<.05, ** p<.01, ***p <.001.

The reference group for education is Bachelor’s degree, for Western countries is non-Western countries, for full-time is part-time, for geographic region is Toronto. Location of residence and survey year fixed effects are included in both models. Industry and occupation fixed effects are included in the earnings model.

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes

Kristyn Frank is a Senior Researcher with the Social Analysis and Modelling Division at Statistics Canada. Her research primarily focuses on the social and economic integration of immigrants in Canada. She also studies the school-to-work transitions of post-secondary graduates, with a particular interest in their labour market outcomes by field of study. She holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Waterloo.

Feng Hou is Principal Researcher with the Social Analysis and Modelling Division, Statistics Canada and Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the University of Victoria. His research focuses on the socioeconomic integration of immigrants and the second generation, dynamics of social diversity, minority-majority social interaction and community contextual effects. He holds a PhD in social demography from the University of Western Ontario.

References

Angrist

Pischke

(2009) Mostly Harmless Econometrics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Antecol

(2000) An examination of cross-country differences in the gender gap in labor force participation rates. Labour Economics 7(4): 409–26.

Baker

Benjamin

(1997) The role of the family in immigrants’ labor market activity: an evaluation of alternative explanations. The American Economic Review 87(4): 705–27.

Batalova

Cohen

(2002) Premarital cohabitation and housework: couples in cross-national perspective. Journal of Marriage and Family 64(3): 743–55.

Behtoui

(2008) Informal recruitment methods and disadvantages of immigrants in the Swedish labor market. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 34(3): 411–30.

Blau

(1992) The fertility of immigrant women: evidence from high-fertility source countries. In: Borjas

Freeman

(eds) Immigration and the Work Force: Economic Consequences for the United States and Source Areas. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 93–133.

Blau

Kahn

Papps

(2011) Gender, source country characteristics, and labor market assimilation among immigrants. The Review of Economics and Statistics 93(1): 43–58.

Boyd

(1984) At a disadvantage: the occupational attainments of foreign born women in Canada. International Migration Review 18(4): 1091–1119.

Boyd

Thomas

(2002) Skilled immigrant labor: country of origin and the occupational locations of male engineers. Canadian Studies in Population 29(1): 71–99.

10.

Buchmann

Kriesi

Sacchi

(2010) Labour market structures and women’s employment levels. Work, Employment and Society 24(2): 279–99.

11.

Chen

(2008) Women and Employment in Africa: A Framework for Action. Cambridge, MA: WIEGO Network, Harvard University.

12.

Christie-Mizell

(2006) The effects of traditional family and gender ideology on earnings: race and gender differences. Journal of Family and Economic Issues 27(1): 48–70.

13.

David

Lopez

(2001) Knowledge, Capabilities and Human Capital Formation in Economic Growth, New Zealand Treasury Working Paper 01/13, New Zealand Treasury, Wellington, New Zealand.

14.

Doss

(1999) Twenty-Five Years of Research on Women Farmers in Africa: Lessons and Implications for Agricultural Institutions, CIMMYT Economics Program Paper 99–02, CIMMYT, Mexico City, Mexico.

15.

England

(1992) Comparable Worth: Theories and Evidence. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.

16.

Famighetti

(ed.) (1999) World Almanac Book of Facts: 2000. Mahwah, NJ: Primedia Reference.

17.

Firestone

Harris

Lambert

(1999) Gender role ideology and the gender based differences in earnings. Journal of Family and Economic Issues 20(2): 191–215.

18.

Fortin

(2005) Gender role attitudes and the labor market outcomes of women across OECD countries. Oxford Review of Economic Policy 21(3): 416–38.

19.

Frank

Hou

(2015) Source country gender roles and the division of labor within immigrant families. Journal of Marriage and Family 77(2): 557–74.

20.

Frijters

Shields

Price

(2005) Job search methods and their success: a comparison of immigrants and natives in the UK. The Economic Journal 115(November): F359–76.

21.

Fuwa

(2004) Macro-level gender inequality and the division of household labor in 22 countries. American Sociological Review 69(6): 751–67.

22.

Höhne

Koopmans

(2010) Host-Country Cultural Capital and Labour Market Trajectories of Migrants in Germany: The Impact of Host-Country Orientation and Migrant-Specific Human and Social Capital on Labour Market Transitions, WZB Discussion Paper SP IV 2010–701, WZB, Berlin, Germany.

23.

Judge

Livingston

(2008) Is the gap more than gender? A longitudinal analysis of gender, gender role orientation, and earnings. Journal of Applied Psychology 93(5): 994–1012.

24.

Kan

Sullivan

Gershuny

(2011) Gender convergence in domestic work: discerning the effects of interactional and institutional barriers from large-scale data. Sociology 45(2): 234–51.

25.

Knudsen

Wærness

(2008) National context and spouses’ housework in 34 countries. European Sociological Review 24(1): 97–113.

26.

Kofman

Raghuram

(2006) Gender and global labour migrations: incorporating skilled workers. Antipode 38(2): 282–303.

27.

Laroche

Mérette

Ruggeri

(1999) On the concept and dimensions of human capital in a knowledge-based economy context. Canadian Public Policy 25(1): 87–100.

28.

Levitt

(2005) Building bridges: what migration scholarship and cultural sociology have to say to each other. Poetics 33(1): 49–62.

29.

Liversage

(2009) Vital conjunctures, shifting horizons: high-skilled female immigrants looking for work. Work, Employment and Society 23(1): 120–41.

30.

Lundberg

Rose

(2000) Parenthood and the earnings of married men and women. Labour Economics 7(6): 689–710.

31.

Nieuwenhuis

Need

Van der Kolk

(2012) Institutional and demographic explanations of women’s employment in 18 OECD countries, 1975–1999. Journal of Marriage and Family 74(3): 614–30.

32.

Picot

(2004) The deteriorating economic welfare of Canadian immigrants. Canadian Journal of Urban Research 13(1): 25–46.

33.

Reitz

Sklar

(1997) Culture, race, and the economic assimilation of immigrants. Sociological Forum 2(2): 233–77.

34.

Reskin

Roos

(1990) Job Queues, Gender Queues. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

35.

Sanders

Nee

Sernau

(2002) Asian immigrants’ reliance on social ties in a multiethnic labor market. Social Forces 81(1): 281–314.

36.

Semyonov

(1980) The social context of women’s labor force participation: a comparative analysis. American Journal of Sociology 86(3): 534–50.

37.

Stickney

Konrad

(2007) Gender-role attitudes and earnings: a multinational study of married women and men. Sex Roles 57(11/12): 801–11.

38.

Ultee

Dessens

Jansen

(1988) Why does unemployment come in couples? An analysis of (un)employment and (non)employment homogamy tables for Canada, the Netherlands and the United States in the 1980s. European Sociological Review 4(2): 111–22.

39.

van Tubergen

(2011) Job search methods of refugees in the Netherlands: determinants and consequences. Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies 9(2): 179–95.

40.

van Tubergen

Maas

Flap

(2004) The economic integration of immigrants in 19 Western societies: origin, destination, and community effects. American Sociological Review 69(5): 704–27.

41.

Vella

(1998) Estimating models with sample selection bias: a survey. Journal of Human Resources 33(1): 127–69.

42.

Wooldridge

(2003) Cluster-sample methods in applied econometrics. The American Economic Review 93(2): 133–8.

43.

Zikic

Bonache

Cerdin

(2010) Crossing national boundaries: a typology of qualified immigrants’ career orientations. Journal of Organizational Behavior 31(5): 667–86.