Panel ‘Can Education and Training lead to Decent Work? The plight of Underemployed and Deskilled

Migrant Women: A Global Perspective’

Representations and Strategies among Immigrant Women in Québec.

Hélène Cardu, Ph.D.

Université LavalQuébec city, Québec, Canada,

New York, February 25th 2011

Table of contents

Context Immigrant Women in Quebec: Who are

they? Deskilling among immigrant women in

Québec Obstacles and Strategies

Definitions♦ Professional deskilling: ♦ A non-correspondence between the level of

the higher degree owned by the migrant and the level of diploma required by the job exercised. It refers to the fact, for highly qualified migrants, of occupying a job of a lesser qualification (Chicha, 2009).

♦ Resilience: It designates “the capacity to succeed, to live, to develop oneself, despite adversity’’ (Cyrulnik, 2001) .

Context

♦ Quebec welcomes 49,000 migrants annually (49,489 persons in 2009 - Institut de la statistique du Québec) of which 65% are economic immigrants and 59% are skilled workers.

♦ Statistics on indicators of recent migrants integration show important distances between natives and migrants.

♦ Newcomers are facing more difficulties than Quebecers natives: in 2009, their unemployment rate was 3 times higher than for natives, a rate much higher than it is in the other provinces (Boudarbat et Boulet, 2010) and their wage rate is unsatisfactory (Picot, 2004).

♦ Deskilling is an indicator of migrant vulnerability on the job market.

♦ In 2006, in Canada, a native had 2.7% more chances than a migrant to occupy a job corresponding to his diploma and 3 times higher in Québec (Beji, 2010)

♦ So diplomas do not seem to protect migrant workers and can even accentuate transitional deskilling, (Chicha, 2009). That is, the more the contrast between credentials and their recognition is important, and the more it can affect self esteem and confidence, leading to isolation, a deficit in relational skills and then lowering chances to get a job corresponding to expectancies

♦ It takes 5 years for that 68% of migrants could access a job corresponding to their qualifications and even then, there exits 12% chance that they will fall back to a deskilled job (Beji, 2010; Renaud et Cayn, 2006)

♦ In Québec, the CRARR (Centre de recherche-action sur les relations raciales) shows an unemployment rate of 29% for North African Maghrebins and of 17% for Black, compared to 8% for the population as a whole (Lynhiavu, 2009).

♦ Women from visible minorities have a unemployment rate of 13% compared to 7% for Quebec women in general.

♦ Women Migrants for the period from 2005 to 2009:

52.2% of them were skilled workers.

♦ 35.6% of them have 17 years or more of schooling

♦ 36.1% have 14 to 16 years of schooling.

♦ The selection grid for immigrants to Quebec still largely rests on their employability and not on matching their skills to sectors where there is a lack in the labour force: their potential exceeds the demands in the most in demand domains for the technical and professional levels (Mc Andrew, 2010; Chicha, 2009), which produces anger and dissatisfaction.

♦ The comparison between highly educated immigrant women (with a university degree) and women in the population as a whole, shows an income of 82% among the first group compared to native.

♦ Full time work does not protect them from such a disadvantage since they have lower incomes than resident Quebec women

♦ (70% ) and a higher unemployment rate.

♦ In addition, the deskilling rate could be expected to increase by 44% for women of visible minorities in Canada (Chicha, 2009).

♦ ♦ Moreover, in Canada, immigrant women

are heavily represented in jobs traditionally held by women (CIC, 2003; Lindsay and Almey, 2005) and unevenly distributed across skill levels (CIC, 2003; 2010).

Casuses to potential downward mobility

-immigrant women’s credentials are often discounted which can impact their career progression (Khan and Watson, 2005; Man 2004; Salaff and Greve, 2003; Tastsoglou and Miedema, 2005).

♦ -access to the job market can be denied (ex: Muslim women who wear a hijab are facing considerable discrimination when applying for jobs (Vatz Laaroussi, 2009; Cardu, 2008; Cardu and Sanschagrin, 2002).

♦ -foreign experience judged as suspicious by employers

♦ -difficulty mastering the French language

♦ -limited knowledge of the English language

♦ -discriminations and prejudices♦ ♦ -lack of professional networks

♦ In summary, gender is linked to professional deskilling, to increased irregularity in professional work (frequent job changes), to advancement difficulties and to less favourable work conditions.

♦ Professional career paths marked by deskilling naturally seem to produce discouragement, isolation and depression.

♦ There is a distance between the professional expectations of immigrant women and the reality which they meet on the labour market (Lenoir-Achdjian and al, 2008; Cardu, 2008; Man, 2004, Belhassen-Maaloui, 2008).

♦ Psychological factors associated with positive career adjustments.

-The congruity between expectations and experience,

♦ -the level of perceived discrimination, ♦ -the level of acculturation and skill in knowing how

to manage one’s career ♦ -having a form of schooling in the host country, ♦ -the number of years lived in Canada ♦ -having received accreditation (from Professional

Orders)

♦Resilience vectors

♦-Refer to knowledge, learned skills, abilities, attitudes and values that have been developed during the migration journey.-Among those values, optimism, respect, commitment

♦ -Transnational networks of solidarity

Migrant women in Québec city (N=83) Québec city

♦ Most deskilled groups:

♦ Eastern Europe Women (50%),♦ Central and South American Women (48% ), ♦ Asian Women (35%) ♦ and ♦ Western Europe Women (35%).

Identity representations ♦ Content describing the self : very positive

(65% to 90%)♦ -Hard work, hospitality, loyalty, respect

(Asia)♦ -Cooperation, openness, motivation,

resistance (Africa)♦ -Helping one another, cooperation, pride,

unity (CSA)♦ -Openness , unity (Europe)

♦ The highest disappointment and bitterness: Western European Women.

♦ Confronted with new methods of measurement (interviews), new cultural codes in searching for jobs: those obstacles were not expected, rendering the deskilled state even more negative

♦ Women from Central and South Americas and Asia

♦ Are choosing strategies to re-orienting themselves to get a better access to the job market

♦ Strategies used by North African women faced with professional deskilling:

♦ Profiles:♦ A rapid deskilled integration, usually into

a factory or sales job, allowing the spouse to return to further studies

♦ A strategy of returning to being a homemaker before going back to further studies, their own return to further studies depending on the future wage-earning job of the husband.

♦ Viewing the professional deskilling that they are subjected to as intrinsically related to their “immigrant career” leads to have different expectations concerning the social and professional acceptance that they face and the deskilling that they encounter as being a step part of their migration path. It becomes a factor of protection of their self esteem.

♦ Hichini Alaoui (2006),

Strategies♦ Formal professional integration networks

♦ Formal job search Networks

♦ Re-qualification through reorientation and acquisition of a diploma in the host society

♦ Conclusion

♦ Deskilling associated a distance between professional expectations of immigrant women and the reality which they meet on the labour market .

♦ Further education strategy is often undertaken, despite the associated costs, a strategy associated with a higher employment rate for migrants. Boudarbat and Boulet (2010)