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September 2021

Spotlight on data and research

Immigrant entrepreneurs in Canada: Highlights from recent studies

The article discusses several main aspects of business ownership such as business ownership rates, characteristics of immigrant business owners, types of immigrant businesses, duration of ownership, financing, innovation and immigrant participation in the “gig economy.” It also offers a brief discussion of possible reasons behind some of the findings.

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Insights

Gender- related differences in desired level of educational attainment among students in Canada

In recent decades, women’s educational attainment has increased significantly in Canada. This article shows that, overall, women were more likely than men to choose a bachelor’s degree or above as the highest level of education desired. However, at the same time, more women than men report that they encountered obstacles preventing them from achieving the highest level of education desired.

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Research articles

Immigrant and second-generation entrepreneurs in Canada: An intergenerational comparison of business ownership

This paper uses a novel data set that links individual and business level administrative data to microdata from the 2016 Census of Population to examine the economic contribution through the ownership of companies of second generation Canadians—individuals born in Canada with immigrant parents.

The second generation’s business ownership rates were lower than that of immigrants but higher than those of “third plus” generations—individuals with Canadian-born parents. This finding held for all three forms of business ownership investigated in this study: the ownership of (1) private incorporated firms with employees, (2) private incorporated firms in high-tech research and development (R&D)-intensive industries and (3) the primarily self-employed (unincorporated).

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Gender-related differences in the career advancement of women in Canada

Gender-related differences in career advancement may be a contributing factor to the gender wage gap. This article compares the career advancement of women with that of their male counterparts. For instance, women were less likely than men to receive training paid for by their employer in the previous 12 months. However, it is not known if this is because employers offered women less paid training or if the women chose not to participate. In addition, for those who received training, women were less likely than men to report feeling that it made their job is more secure or improved prospects for future employment.

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