Source-country female labour force participation and the wages of immigrant women in Canada

Previous studies have found a strong association between source-country female labour force participation rates and immigrant women's labour market activity in the host country. This association has been interpreted as the lasting influence of source-country gender role attitudes. These studies, however, do not measure gender-role attitudes directly and examine labour market activities only in terms of labour force participation in the host country. Employing data from the 2006-to-2012 Labour Force Survey and the 1994-2007 World Values Survey, this analysis includes both source-country female labour force participation rates and an explicit measure of source-country gender role attitudes to account for group differences in immigrant women's labour market outcomes in Canada across several measures. The results indicate that the effect of source-country gender role attitudes on immigrant women's labour market participation in Canada works through its relationship with source-country female labour force participation rates. Moreover, source-country female labour force participation rates are positively correlated with immigrant women's wages in Canada independent of source-country gender role attitudes. This is mostly accounted for by occupational and industry differences, as immigrant women from countries with high female labour force participation rates are more concentrated in higher-paying industries and occupations in Canada than immigrant women from countries with low levels of female labour force participation.

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