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Summary

Immigrants to Canada face numerous difficulties during their first years in Canada. The Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC) followed a cohort of immigrants over the course of their first four years in Canada. The immigrants selected were interviewed at three points in time: at six months, two years and four years after their arrival in Canada. The results of the LSIC showed that after immigrants had spent four years in Canada, the two difficulties cited by the largest number of them were finding an appropriate job and having to deal with the language barrier.

We therefore attempted to study the relationship between knowledge of the official languages by new immigrants and having an appropriate job. Does a better knowledge of the official languages increase an immigrant’s chances of having a high-skill job, a job in the intended field, a job similar to the one held before immigrating, a job related to the field of training or education, or a higher hourly wage?

To try to answer the different parts of this question, we used information concerning the job held at the time of each interview as well as the self-reported ability to speak English and French at each of these points in time. The study showed that there is a significant relationship between the ability to speak English and the five job characteristics studied, at six months, two years and four years after arrival. Employed immigrants with the highest levels of spoken English were therefore more likely, compared to immigrants whose level of English was lower, to have a high-skill job, a job in the intended field, a job similar to the one held before immigrating, a job related to their training or education, and a higher hourly wage. This effect was particularly evident for immigrants whose spoken level in English was “well” or “very well” (levels 4 and 5 on a scale of 1 to 5). The effect of French in Canada as a whole was much less significant; it was observed for only three of the five characteristics studied, and was no longer at all significant after four years in Canada.

The situation in Quebec is exceptional, given the wide use of both official languages there. In Quebec, the ability to speak English is found to have an effect on the chances of having a high-skill job and a job related to training or education and on the hourly wage of immigrants. The effect of English in Quebec tends to disappear over time, except with respect to earnings, where the effect is still observed four years after the immigrant’s arrival. On the other hand, no significant effect is observed for the ability to speak French on the job characteristics studied. Furthermore, when the effect of the ability to speak both English and French on the hourly wage is examined, the ability to speak English is found to matter the most.

Two major points should be taken into account when interpreting the results of this study. First, the small sample sizes for some levels of French in Quebec might be partially responsible for the instability of the results observed. Second, the effect of language should not be interpreted as a direct cause of having an appropriate job. The effect might instead be due to a phenomenon or characteristic other than language proficiency that is highly correlated with the latter.