The ongoing project “Understanding Labour Markets for Immigrant Workers in Peel Region,” now “Immigrants & Precarious Employment,” (2022-23, 2020-21, 2018-19, 2017-18) increases our understanding of and outreach to Peel by involving undergraduates in collecting data from their communities. The goals of the research are to understand the various barriers that immigrants face when trying to find a good job and how they navigate those barriers. It is based on qualitative interviews collected and analyzed by UTM students. Students use their networks of family and friends to recruit immigrants (defined as those not born in Canada), mostly living in Peel region, to participate in semi-structured interviews that encourage participants to emphasize what is important to them and to share experiences in depth. These data allow for an analysis of the various dynamics that shape immigrants’ incorporation into a given job, such as immigration policy, broad changes in the economy toward more precarious employment, degree of employer discrimination, and the immigrants’ own social networks, as well as the quality of their jobs in Canada. Interviews also probe the reasons they left their countries and the types of employment they had there.
- View the report:
- Summary report:
Immigrants and Precarious Employment: A Report from Peel Region