IMMIGRATION: ETHNICITY VS. INCOME

CGO 4M ISP By: Kelli Bradley

INTRODUCTION In my ISP I decided to analyze data on the ethnic

origins of immigrants and weather or not there is a direct relationship between ethnicity and average household income .

If there is a direct relationship between the two, this could mean that the Canadian government or immigration/settlement services are not doing a good enough job when they assist immigrants settling in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)

The most important groups in this review would be the 5 different ethnic groups I have chosen to focus on, immigration offices, settlement services, and the Canadian government who is responsible for funding.

PURPOSE The reason that I chose to evaluate this

topic is to find out whether or not there is a direct relation between the ethnic origin of an immigrant and the income level that they earn once settled in Canada

Knowing this information will allow recommendations to be made in order to make the immigration experience smoother and more efficient, this will hopefully save time and money for both the immigrants and the Canadian government

OBJECTIVES Obtain my data from Toronto census records Add the shape files of average family income

to a base map of the GTA Add the census data that shows the ethnic

origin of immigrants as a shape file to the same maps (I used 5 ethnicities: Chinese, Japanese, Pakistani, Somalian, and Colombian)

Having these maps allowed me to analyze the patterns attached to the relationships of ethnic background and family income levels

Knowing this relationship allows me to make the best recommendations that will benefit the most people

METHODOLOGY 1. Before I was able to add the shape

files to the maps I had to figure out what all the file code names meant on the data so that I could decode them and choose the right income type to add to the maps.

2. The next step I did that was challenging adding individual ethnic backgrounds to my maps because all the data was in the same file so I had to isolate one field in the attribute table to select a single ethnicity.

METHODOLOGY CONTINUED3. My next challenge was to adjust all the

ranges for the size of my graduated symbols so that they were custom for my maps and also so that I did not have to have millions of small dots for areas with only 5 people.

4. The last challenge that I faced was making the recommendation for the issue that some ethnicities don’t have as high of income level as others because there are so many interpretations of the data. However I managed to narrow it down so that the most likely reasons for lower income would be addressed .

CHINESE POPULATION VS. INCOME

RESULTS/ANALYSIS For the map of the Chinese immigrants

it is very obvious that the Chinese population in the GTA is very abundant

I have also concluded from my map that the highest percent of Chinese people live in the lowest 2 income level categories

The highest density Chinese population is in a low income area of the GTA (under $136 000/year)

COLOMBIAN POPULATION VS. INCOME

RESULTS/ANALYSIS In the GTA there is not a very high

population of people of Colombian ethnicity because most of these immigrants are likely under refugee status

All but about 6-10 of these people live in very low income areas

The most likely reason for this is probably the fact that the country they immigrated from had poor education and therefore it will take more effort from the settlement services to make a smoother transition and hopefully a more successful career

JAPANESE POPULATION VS. INCOME

RESULTS/ANALYSIS From the map, it is clear that there is a

large Japanese population in the GTA The majority of Japanese immigrants

live in higher in come areas, this leads me to believe that many Japanese immigrants are well educated due to the ability to get higher paying jobs

this will allow for smoother and more comfortable transitions into Canadian culture

PAKISTANI POPULATION VS. INCOME

RESULTS/ANALYSIS The map shows that there isn’t a very large

Pakistani population compared to the population of other ethnicities

The map also allows us to see that this ethnicity is mid to low on the average income levels

The relation between income and ethnicity could lead one to believe that there education levels are not quite advanced enough to compete competitively for higher paid jobs

From an economic stand point this could be a positive thing because there are lots of lower paying jobs that will always need to be done

SOMALIAN POPULATION VS. INCOME

RESULTS/ANALYSIS From the map, we can conclude that a

successful transition for Somalian people to Canadian culture, this could be because of the extreme difference in culture and education

The reason I believe that statement is because the immigrants are all in the lowest income category (under $850 000/year)

This would mean that people from this country (or ones of very similar circumstances) should be handled similarly by settlement services to be more successful in Canada

CONCLUSION Throughout the completion of this study, I have

drawn the conclusion that the level of income is directly related to the origin of the ethnicity. This is shown in the maps by the trends in ethnicity and income. Meaning that if there is a large number if immigrants from one country, there is a high likelihood that they will all make around the same income level.

This can assist immigrations, and settlement services know to know what immigrants need to have more assistance in adjusting to the culture and economic changes. (this could mean that they need to take a few classes to help themselves, i.e. Learning how to speak English more fluently) this would assist them in getting a job making for a more positive transition.