Full Citation

Title: The Costs of Regulatory Federalism: Does provincial labour market regulation impede the integration of Canadian Immigrants?

Citation Type: Working Paper

Publication Year: 2013

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Abstract: Does regulation impede or facilitate immigrant participation in the labor market? To answer this question we focus on the growing, and increasingly regulated, Canadian health sector. On the one hand, occupational regulation may facilitate immigrant entry into the labor market as it imposes standards based on credentials, and recent immigrants tend to be highly skilled. On the other hand, provincially designated authorities often enforce regulatory standards, and their selection criterion may unwittingly penalize those with foreign credentials or expertise. Using a longitudinal data set combining information on the regulation of nine Canadian health care occupations and the Canadian Census from 1991 to 2006, we test whether the introduction of regulation places a greater burden on the immigrant population relative to the native born. Specifically, we employ a difference in methodology, exploiting variation across provinces and over time in whether an occupation is regulated to identify its effect on the ration of immigrants to native born-workers employed in that occupation. The results indicate that, on average, a province's introduction of occupational regulation increases the participation of immigrants relative to the native born by 20%.

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Authors: Fu, Chunling; Hickey, Ross

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Publication Number: 13-01

Institution: Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Diversity

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Publisher Location: Vancouver, BC

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Topics: Health, Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration

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