Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services

Immigrants to Ontario tend to be better educated than people born in Canada. Among very
recent immigrants (five years or less) between the ages of 25 and 54, 76 per cent have a
post-secondary certificate, diploma or university degree as of 2010, compared to 65 per cent
of the Canadian-born Ontario population in the same age category. Despite high educational
attainment, recent immigrants’ earnings remain well below those of Canadian-born citizens.
A recent study found that although federally selected economic immigrants have consistently
higher earnings levels than any other category among both males and females, overall the
earnings gap between immigrants and Canadian-born workers has been growing. 9 Data from
the Labour Force Survey show average weekly wages of very recent immigrants in Ontario
(here for five years or less) were 23.9 per cent below those of Canadian-born workers in 2010,
up from 20.6 per cent in 2006. The earnings gap between university-educated immigrants and
their Canadian-born counterparts is even more startling: in 1995, the gap stood at $24,437
annually; by 2005, this figure had grown to $27,020. 10
TABLE 10.3 Average Weekly Earnings Lower for Landed Immigrants in Ontario
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Total $766.16 $784.58 $814.88 $830.86 $848.00
Total landed immigrants 759.55 780.38 796.17 802.53 818.43
Very recent immigrants, 5 years or less 610.72 597.78 636.75 626.53 654.63
Recent immigrants, 5+ years 782.77 808.92 822.42 828.47 841.06
Recent immigrants, 5 to 10 years 714.02 706.70 747.61 734.58 733.95
Established immigrants, 10+ years 799.08 834.23 840.52 849.01 865.29
Non-landed immigrants 734.62 712.07 772.81 786.25 823.65
Born in Canada 769.62 787.98 823.12 842.75 860.04
Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey.
Recent immigrants are also more likely to live in poverty. Nearly one-quarter (23.8 per cent) of
immigrants who had been in Ontario for less than five years were considered low income in
2009, much higher than the overall low income rate of 13.1 per cent. Even among those in the
province for less than 10 years, nearly one in five was living in poverty (19.1 per cent).
9 Michael G. Abbott and Charles M. Beach, “Do Admission Criteria and Economic Recessions Affect Immigrant Earnings?” 2011, Institute
for Research on Public Policy.
10 D. Drummond, and F. Fong. “The Changing Canadian Workplace,” TD Economics, TD Bank Financial Group, 2010, p. 8,
downloaded from http://www.td.com/document/PDF/economics/special/td-economics-special-ff0310-canlab.pdf.
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