Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:29:37.642Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Golden Years or Retirement Fears? Private Pension Inequality Among Canada’s Immigrants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2017

Josh Curtis  and
Naomi Lightman
Josh Curtis*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Bishop’s University
Naomi Lightman*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
*
†La correspondance et les demandes de tire-à-part doivent être adressées à : / Correspondence and requests for offprints should be sent to: Josh Curtis, Ph.D. Bishop’s University Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 <[email protected]> or Naomi Lightman, Ph.D. University of Toronto 725 Spadina Ave. Toronto ON M5S 2J4 <[email protected]>
†La correspondance et les demandes de tire-à-part doivent être adressées à : / Correspondence and requests for offprints should be sent to: Josh Curtis, Ph.D. Bishop’s University Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 <[email protected]> or Naomi Lightman, Ph.D. University of Toronto 725 Spadina Ave. Toronto ON M5S 2J4 <[email protected]>
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Currently, many immigrants are disqualified from Canada’s public pension scheme because of residency requirements. In addition, decades of low income and labour market exclusion prohibit many Canadian immigrants from building adequate private pension savings throughout their working life. Together, these factors present serious concerns for immigrant seniors’ economic well-being. Using Canadian census data spanning a twenty-year period (1991–2011), we find that income from personal savings plans and investments has declined sharply for both native-born and immigrant Canadians, with recent immigrant cohorts faring worst. However, since 1991, native-born and immigrant men living in Canada for 40-plus years had major gains in private employer pensions (Registered Pension Plans; [RPPs]). Yet RPP income for all other immigrant cohorts remained stable or declined during these decades. Thus, the data demonstrate a worrisome growing private savings gap between native-born men and all others in Canada, with newer immigrants and women faring worst.

Résumé

En ce moment, de nombreux immigrants n’ont pas droit à participer au régime de retraite publique du Canada en raison des critères de résidence légale. De plus, des décennies de faible revenu et de l’exclusion du marché du travail défendent à nombreux immigrants canadiens d’augmenter une épargne-pension ou des économies suffisantes tout au long de la période de la vie quand ils travaillent. Ces facteurs, pris ensemble, posent de sérieuses préoccupations pour le bien-être des immigrants âgés. À l’aide des données du recensement canadien pendant une période de vingt ans (1991–2011), nous constatons que les revenus tirés des épargnes et des investissements personnels ont fortement diminué chez les canadiens d’origine et les immigrants, les dernières cohortes d’immigrants étant les plus touchées. Toutefois, depuis 1991, les hommes d’origine canadienne et les immigrants vivant au Canada depuis 40 ans ou plus ont montré des gains importants dans les pensions des employeurs privés. Ainsi, les données montrent un écart inquiétant de plus en plus grand entre les hommes nés au Canada et tous les autres au Canada, les nouveaux immigrants et les femmes étant les plus démunis.

Keywords

agingsocial policyprivate pensionseconomic inequalityCanadian immigrantsvieillissementpolitique socialepensions privéesinégalité économiqueimmigrants canadiens
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 178 - 195
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Association on Gerontology 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The authors have made equal contributions to this publication. The research presented is part of an ongoing collaboration by the two authors, with order of authorship systematically rotated from one paper to the next. Funding for this research was provided by the authors’ Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Postdoctoral Fellowships (Files No: 756-2014-0117 and 756-2015-0381). We wish to thank Bob Andersen for his help in the preparation of this manuscript.

References

Aboubacar, S. A., & Zhu, N. (2013). Episodes of non-employment among immigrants from developing countries in Canada. Canadian Studies in Population, 40(1–2), 9–22.Google Scholar
Anderson, N., & Hughes, K. D. (2010). The business of caring: Women’s self-employment and the marketization of care. Gender, Work & Organization, 17(4), 381–405.Google Scholar
Aydemir, A. (2011). Immigrant selection and short-term labor market outcomes by visa category. Journal of Population Economics, 24, 451–475.Google Scholar
Aydemir, A., & Skuterud, M. (2005). Explaining the deteriorating entry earnings of Canada’s immigrant cohorts, 1966–2000. Canadian Journal of Economics, 38(2), 641–672.Google Scholar
Baldwin, B. (2009). Research study on the Canadian retirement income system. Retrieved from http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/consultations/pension/dec09report.pdf Google Scholar
Banting, K., & Myles, J. (2013). Inequality and the fading of redistributive politics. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bejan, R. (2011). Smoke and mirrors: How an allegedly inclusionary strategy perpetuates an exclusionary discourse. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 43(3), 165–181.Google Scholar
Block, S., Galabuzi, G.-E., & Weiss, A. (2014). The colour coded labour market by the numbers. Toronto, ON: Wellesley Institute.Google Scholar
Bonikowska, A., Riddell, W. C., & Green, D. A. (2008). Literacy and the labour market: Cognitive skills and immigrant earnings. Report 89-552-M No. 020. Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada; Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics.Google Scholar
Boudarbat, B., & Connolly, M. (2013). The gender wage gap among recent post-secondary graduates in Canada: A distributional approach. Canadian Journal of Economics, 46(3), 1037–1065.Google Scholar
Boyd, M., & Cao, X. (2009). Immigrant language proficiency, earnings, and language policies. Canadian Studies in Population, 36(1–2), 63–86.Google Scholar
Boyd, M., & Thomas, D. (2001). Match or mismatch? The employment of immigrant engineers in Canada’s labor force. Population Research and Policy Review, 20(1–2), 107–133.Google Scholar
Cranford, C. J. (2012). Gendered projects of solidarity: Workplace organizing among immigrant women and men. Gender, Work & Organization, 19(2), 142–164.Google Scholar
Cranford, C. J., & Vosko, L. F. (2006). Conceptualizing precarious employment: Mapping wage work across social location and occupational context. In Vosko, L. F. (Ed.), Precarious employment: Understanding labour market insecurity in Canada (pp. 43–66). Montreal, QC: McGill-Queen’s University Press.Google Scholar
Crossley, T. F., & Spencer, B. G. (2008). Private pensions and income security in old age: An uncertain future introduction. Canadian Public Policy, 34(4), Siii-Svi.Google Scholar
Curtis, J., & McMullin, J. (2016). Older workers and the diminishing return of employment: Changes in age-based income inequality in Canada, 1996–2011. Work, Aging, and Retirement, 2(1), 359–371.Google Scholar
Curtis, J., & McMullin, J. (2017). Dynamics of retirement income inequality in Canada, 1991–2011. Manuscript in preparation.Google Scholar
Curtis, J., Dong, W., Lightman, N., & Parbst, J. (in press). Race, language or length of residency? Explaining unequal uptake of government pensions in Canada.Google Scholar
Drolet, M., & Morissette, R. (2015). New facts on pension coverage in Canada. Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada. Retrieved from https://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75-006-x/2014001/article/14120-eng.pdf Google Scholar
Drolet, M., & Mumford, K. (2012). The gender pay gap for private-sector employees in Canada and Britain. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 50(3), 529–553.Google Scholar
Elrick, J., & Lightman, N. (2016). Sorting or shaping? The gendered economic outcomes of immigration policy in Canada. International Migration Review, 50(2), 352–384.Google Scholar
Frances, H., & Tator, C. (2000). The colour of democracy: Racism in Canadian society. Toronto, ON: Harcourt Canada Ltd.Google Scholar
Galabuzi, G.-E., & Teelucksingh, C. (2010). Social cohesion, social exclusion, social capital. Retrieved from https://www.peelregion.ca/social-services/pdfs/discussion-paper-1.pdf Google Scholar
Gazso, A. (2004). Women’s inequality in the workplace as framed in news discourse: Refracting from gender ideology. Canadian Review of Sociology, 41(4), 449–473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gazso, A. (2005). The poverty of unattached senior women and the Canadian retirement income system: A matter of blame or contradiction. Journal Sociology & Social Welfare, 32(2), 41–62.Google Scholar
Goldring, L., & Landolt, P. (2011). Caught in the work–citizenship matrix: The lasting effects of precarious legal status on work for Toronto immigrants. Globalizations, 8(3), 325–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Good Gingrich, L., & Lightman, N. (2015). The empirical measurement of a theoretical concept: Tracing social exclusion among racial minority and migrant groups in Canada. Social Inclusion, 3(4), 98–111.Google Scholar
Government of Canada. (2014). Canada pension plan and employment insurance explained: Canada’s international social security agreements. Retrieved from http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/hm/xplnd/ssgrmnts-eng.html Google Scholar
Guo, S. (2013a). The changing face of work and learning in the context of immigration: The Canadian experience. Journal of Education and Work, 26(2), 162–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guo, S. (2013b). Economic integration of recent Chinese immigrants in Canada’s second-tier cities: The triple glass effect and immigrants’ downward social mobility. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 45(3), 95–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hacker, J. S. (2004). Privatizing risk without privatizing the welfare state: The hidden politics of social policy retrenchment in the United States. American Political Science Review, 98(02), 243–260.Google Scholar
Houle, R., & Schellenberg, G. (2008). Remittance behaviours among recent immigrants in Canada. Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series (11F0019M, no. 312). Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada. Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11f0019m/11f0019m2008312-eng.htm Google Scholar
Hulchanski, D., Murdie, R., Walks, A., & Bourne, L. (2014, October 4). Canada’s voluntary census is worthless. Here’s why. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/canadas-voluntary-census-is-worthless-heres-why/article14674558/ Google Scholar
Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. (2010). Evaluation of the guaranteed income supplement take-up measures and outreach. Retrieved from file:///Users/nlightman/Downloads/sp-950-05-10_eng.pdf Google Scholar
Imai, S., Stacey, D., & Warman, C. (2014). From engineer to taxi driver? Language proficiency and the occupational skills of immigrants (Working Paper No. 040). Toronto, ON: Ryerson University, Department of Economics.Google Scholar
Javdani, M., & Pendakur, K. (2014). Fiscal effects of immigrants in Canada. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 15(4), 777–797.Google Scholar
Kaida, L., & Boyd, M. (2011). Poverty variations among the elderly: The roles of income security policies and family co-residence. Canadian Journal on Aging, 30(01), 83–100.Google Scholar
Kesselman, J. R. (2015). Double trouble: The case against expanding tax-free savings accounts. Retrieved from https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/broadbent/pages/11/attachments/original/1430000642/The_Case_Against_Tax_Free_Savings_Accounts.pdf?1430000642 Google Scholar
LaRochelle-Côté, S., Myles, J., & Picot, W. (2008). Income security and stability during retirement in Canada. (Research paper 11F0019M no. 306) Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada. Retrieved from http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/olc-cel/olc.action?ObjId=11F0019M2008306&ObjType=46&lang=en Google Scholar
Li, P. S., & Li, E. X. (2008). University-educated immigrants from China to Canada: Rising number and discounted value. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 40(3), 1–16.Google Scholar
Lightman, E., & Lightman, N. (2017). Social policy in Canada (2nd ed.). Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lightman, N. (2016, March). Discounted labour? Disaggregating care work in comparative perspective. International Labour Review. doi: 10.1111/ilr.12001 Google Scholar
Lightman, N., & Good Gingrich, L. (2012). The intersecting dynamics of social exclusion: Age, gender, race and immigrant status in Canada’s labour market. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 44(3), 121–145.Google Scholar
Marier, P., & Skinner, S. (2008). The impact of gender and immigration on pension outcomes in Canada. Canadian Public Policy, 34(4), S59–S78.Google Scholar
McDonald, J. T., & Worswick, C. (2013). Retirement incomes, labour supply and co-residency decisions of older immigrants in Canada: 1991–2006 (Working Paper No. 116). Canadian Labour Market and Skills Researcher Network. Retrieved from http://www.clsrn.econ.ubc.ca/workingpapers/CLSRN%20Working%20Paper%20no.%20116%20-%20McDonald%20and%20Worswick.pdf Google Scholar
Milligan, K. (2008). The evolution of elderly poverty in Canada. Canadian Public Policy, 34(4), S79–S94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milligan, K. (2015). Incomes and hardship in early transitions to retirement. Canadian Journal on Aging, 34(01), 1–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Myles, J. (2000a). Incomes of seniors (Catalogue no. 75-001-XPE). Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada. Retrieved from http://ivt.crepuq.qc.ca/popactive/documentation2003_A/2000/pear2000012004s4a03.pdf Google Scholar
Myles, J. (2000b). The maturation of Canada’s retirement income system: Income levels, income inequality and low-income among the elderly. Research paper series (Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch), no. 118. Ottawa, ON: Analytical Studies Branch, Statistics Canada. Retrieved from publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection/CS11-0019-147E.pdf Google Scholar
National Advisory Council on Aging. (2005). Seniors on the margins: Aging in poverty in Canada. Retrieved from http://publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection/H88-5-3-2005E.pdf Google Scholar
Ng, E., Lai, D. W. L., Rudner, A. T., & Orpana, H. (2012). What do we know about immigrant seniors aging in Canada? A demographic, socio-economic and health profile In Ali, M. A., (Ed.), CERIS Working Papers 88–90. Retrieved from http://www.elderabuseontario.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/What-do-we-know-about-immigrant-seniors-aging-in-Canada.pdf Google Scholar
Nichols, L., & Tyyskä, V. (2015). Immigrant women in Canada and the United States. In Bauder, H. & Shields, J. (Eds.), Immigrant Experiences in North America: Understanding Settlement and Integration (pp. 248–272). Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars’ Press.Google Scholar
Noack, A. M., & Vosko, L. F. (2012). Precarious jobs in Ontario: Mapping dimensions of labour market insecurity by workers’ social location and context. Toronto, ON: Law Commission of Ontario.Google Scholar
Patel, D. (2006). The Maple-Neem nexus: Transnational links of South Asian Canadians. In Satzewich, V. & Wong, L. (Eds.), Transnational identities and practices in Canada (pp. 150–163). Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.Google Scholar
Pendakur, K., & Pendakur, R. (2011). Color by numbers: Minority earnings in Canada 1995–2005. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 12(3), 305–329.Google Scholar
Picot, G., & Sweetman, A. (2012). Making it in Canada: Immigration outcomes and policies. IRPP Study Series, no. 29. Montreal, QC: Institute for Research on Public Policy.Google Scholar
Preston, V., Kim, A., Hudyma, S., Mandell, N., Luxton, M., & Hemphill, J. (2012). Gender, race, and immigration: Aging and economic security in Canada1. Canadian Review of Social Policy, 68/69, 90–106.Google Scholar
Preston, V., Weiser, N., King, K., Mandell, N., Kim, A. H., & Luxton, M. (2014). Worked to death: Diverse experiences of economic security among older immigrants. In Kilbride, K. M. (Ed.), Immigrant integration: Research implications for future policy (pp. 67–81). Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars Press.Google Scholar
Reitz, J. G. (2013). Closing the gaps between skilled immigration and Canadian labor markets: Emerging policy issues and priorities. In Triadafilopoulos, T. (Ed.), Wanted and welcome? (pp. 147–163). New York, NY: Springer.Google Scholar
Rose, D., Carrasco, P., & Charboneau, J. (1998). The role of “weak ties” in the settlement experiences of immigrant women with young children: The case of Central Americans in Montréal (CERIS Working Paper Series). Toronto, ON: Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement.Google Scholar
Service Canada. (n.d.). Old Age Security payment amounts. Retrieved Sept. 9, 2015, from http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/services/pensions/oas/payments/index.shtml?utm_source=vanity+URL&utm_medium=print+publication,+ISPB-185,+ISPB-341&utm_term=/oasamounts&utm_content=Mar+2013,+eng&utm_campaign=OAS+Pension+2013,+Benefits+for+Low+Income+Seniors Google Scholar
Shooshtari, S., Harvey, C. D., Ferguson, E., Heinonen, T., & Khan, S. (2014). Effects of remittance behavior on the lives of recent immigrants to Canada from the Philippines: A population-based longitudinal study. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 35(1), 95–105.Google Scholar
Stewart, M. J., Neufeld, A., Harrison, M. J., Spitzer, D., Hughes, K., & Makwarimba, E. (2006). Immigrant women family caregivers in Canada: Implications for policies and programmes in health and social sectors. Health & Social Care in the Community, 14(4), 329–340.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strang, A., & Ager, A. (2010). Refugee integration: Emerging trends and remaining agendas. Journal of Refugee Studies, 23(4), 589–607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veall, M. R. (2008). Canadian seniors and the low income measure. Canadian Public Policy, 34(4), S47–S58.Google Scholar
Vosko, L. F. (2009). Managing the margins: Gender, citizenship, and the international regulation of precarious employment. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Vosko, L. F., Zukewich, N., & Cranford, C. (2003). Precarious jobs: A new typology of employment. Perspectives on Labour and Income, 4(10), 16–26.Google Scholar
Wald, S., & Fang, T. (2008). Overeducated immigrants in the Canadian labour market: Evidence from the workplace and employee survey. Canadian Public Policy, 34(4), 457–479.Google Scholar
Xu, L. (2012). Who drives a taxi in Canada? (Ref. no. RR20120501). Ottawa, ON: Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Retrieved from http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/research-stats/taxi.pdf Google Scholar
Yalnizyan, A. (2010). The problem of poverty post-recession. Toronto, ON: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Retrieved from https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/reports/docs/Poverty%20Post%20Recession.pdf Google Scholar