Content area
Full text
ABSTRACT
Canadian society is undergoing some profound changes at the turn of this new millennium. The impact of globalization on Canadian society and global restructuring on the Canadian economy is such that the Canadian economy is much more open to a global process of production and a global division of labour. Yet key social indicators such as rates of poverty, labour market participation, unemployment rates, sectoral and occupational segregation and health status increasingly suggest that the social economic status of recent immigrants is in decline. The author contends that these trends will not be reversed if it is left to the magic of the market. It will require political action to confront the social economic crisis associated with the decline in the socioeconomic status of recent immigrants.
The changing condition of the immigrant experience in Canada's new millennium
Canadian society is undergoing some profound changes at the turn of this new millennium. The impact of globalization on Canadian society and global restructuring on the Canadian economy is such that the Canadian economy is much more open to a global process of production and a global division of labour. The Canadian labour market is being 'globalized' by the influx of new immigrants, especially from the global South, many of whom are fleeing political and economic conditions unleashed by global restructuring in their places of origin, as globalization destabilizes societies, leading to collapsed economies and forcing many talented people on the move, seeking new opportunities and stability elsewhere.
Yet what many have found in Canada is a society and a labour market also dealing with the similar forces of restructuring, forces which have combined with historical structures of gender and racial discrimination to make many of those immigrants, most those from racialized groups, as vulnerable and increasingly reduced to a lower social economic status than was the case with their predecessors in the last century. Key social indicators such as rates of poverty, labour market participation, unemployment rates, sectoral and occupational segregation and health status increasingly suggest that the social economic status of recent immigrants is in decline. The progress of recent immigrants is often measured by their ability to achieve income parity with other Canadians over a reasonable amount of time. This form of...