Habitus, rules of the labour market and employment strategies of immigrants in Vancouver, Canada

Abstract

Workplace conventions and hiring practices are barriers confronted by immigrants in the Canadian labour market. This paper considers these barriers in the context of Bourdieu's concept of habitus. The empirical research presented examines immigrants from South Asia and the former Yugoslavia in the labour market of Greater Vancouver. A statistical analysis of census data and immigrant landing records is supplemented by an analysis of interviews with community leaders, settlement and employment counsellors, and employers. Immigrants admitted to Canada for family-reunion and humanitarian reasons tend to be less familiar with Canadian labour market ‘rules’ than immigrants recruited for their skills and education. In response to this cultural labour market barrier, South Asian immigrants develop ethnic networks while immigrants from the former Yugoslavia mobilize other cultural resources.

Keywords:

• habitus
• South Asian immigrants
• former Yugoslavia
• Vancouver
• labour markets

Acknowledgements

This project was funded by the Vancouver Centre of the Metropolis Project, RIIM, and the researcher held a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada postdoctoral fellowship while collecting the data. I thank David Ley, Randy McLeman and two anonymous referees for comments, and Emilie Cameron for outstanding research assistance.

Notes

1 The 1996 Canadian Census uses the category ‘Balkan’ rather than ‘former Yugoslavia’.

2 Although, deskilling may eventually push even skilled immigrants into the secondary labour market (Bauder forthcoming).

3 These waves of immigration are consistent with the information presented in Table 1, revealing disproportionate numbers in the skilled-worker class from ‘Yugoslavia’ (Serbia and Montenegro), and refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia.

4 It is a misconception, however, that Canada's immigration procedures apply economic criteria only to the skilled-worker and business classes. An interviewee who entered Canada several years ago as a Croatian refugee explains that her young age, skills and personal motivation helped her qualify as a refugee. Her father, who suffered from the same political circumstances, was too old to qualify for refugee status in Canada. Nevertheless, educational credentials among refugees and family-class immigrants still lag behind those of skilled-worker immigrants.

5 In cross-referencing the validity of this stereotypical ethnic industry, I was surprised that only 0.4 per cent of all male South Asian immigrants worked as transportation and equipment operators (Table 5). Several explanations for this low number can be provided: first, the PUMF is based on 1996 data, while the interviews were recorded in 2001. Perhaps the ‘taxi-driver phenomenon’ emerged only in the last five years. Second, the taxi industry is relatively small compared to the total South Asian immigrant population, enabling a relatively small share of the South Asian immigrant population to dominate the industry. Third, the taxi-driver business is an occupation that is highly visible to the general public and therefore receives a disproportionate share of public and media attention.

6 The 1996 PUMF statistics displayed in Table 5 show that male immigrants from the Balkans indeed concentrate in the occupational category (service supervisors, attendants in recreation), which includes building manager.