Predicting The Occupational Choices Of Foreign-Born And Second-Generation Canadians: Evidence From Census Data

Abstract

In this paper, we study the occupational mobility of immigrants and the intergenerational transfer of their occupational status in Canada. The former is done by predicting their occupational choices and examining shifts in those choices as the length of residence in Canada increases, while the latter is studied by comparing the choices of immigrants with those of second-generation Canadians. Of special interest is the role that gender plays in this regard. We use the Schmidt-Strauss (1975) multinomial logit model to explain occupational choice in terms of human capital & other characteristics with additional controls for immigration status, and the length of residence in Canada. This model is estimated using data from the public-use micro-data files from the 2001 Canadian Censuses, and then used in a simulation context to predict the occupational profiles of all native-born, foreign-born and second-generation Canadian men and women in the aggregate, and also of various cohorts of immigrants.