By Nicholas Keung | Link to Article
One-fifth of Chinese newcomers are self-employed, the highest among newcomer groups, followed by those from India, Pakistan, Iran and Ukraine.
By Nicholas Keung | Link to Article
One-fifth of Chinese newcomers are self-employed, the highest among newcomer groups, followed by those from India, Pakistan, Iran and Ukraine.
The recession of 2008 drove many Torontonians in the direction of self-employment — with new immigrants taking the biggest brunt of the shrinking job market, according to a new study.
Between 2008 and 2009, the city’s self-employment rate rose from 15.7 per cent to 17.1 per cent, above the provincial and national benchmarks, says the joint report by Social Planning Toronto and Newcomer Women’s Services Toronto.
Among self-employed immigrants, 39 per cent had lost their paid employment just before they became self-employed. Some 63 per cent reported earning less than $10,000 a year, compared with about 57 per cent for non-newcomers, says the report, titled “The economy and resilience of newcomers,” to be released Tuesday.
“Self-employment should be a choice and not a survival strategy for newcomers. It should not be a product of labour market exclusion and social safety net exclusion,” said Navjeet Sidhu, a researcher of the study co-authored by Maya Roy and Beth Wilson.
Based on previously unreleased Statistics Canada data and interviews with newcomer entrepreneurs and service providers, the report examined the impact of labour market restructuring on newcomer entrepreneurship in Toronto.
During the recent recession in Canada, rates of self-employment increased by 3.9 per cent, while paid employment in both the private and public sectors shrank by 4.1 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively.
“Economic downturns do not impact all groups of workers equally. It is newcomers, particularly those recently arrived, who are more likely to lose their paid employment compared to Canadian-born workers,” says the 48-page study.
“These workers are often left to compete for low-paying, part-time and temporary types of precarious jobs to survive . . . Some workers are pushed into self-employment as a means to replace lost income from paid employment and due to the failure of government social safety nets.”
Toronto immigrants also fared worse than their Canadian counterparts in self-employment, with median income at $7,270 a year — $560 less than non-immigrants. They were also more likely to work in trade and transportation industries, while the business and professional services sectors are the most common for self-employed Canadians.
The newcomer group had a median before-tax total income (including paid jobs) of $17,220, compared with $25,180 for non-newcomers, though immigrant men made almost $1,000 per annum more than newcomer women.