It's not great, but it could be worse! Immigrant job quality in Canada through the lens of relative deprivation theory

Abstract

We explore whether immigrants are over(under)represented in poor‐quality employment. We find that, on subjective dimensions, immigrants actually have equal and sometimes superior quality jobs relative to native‐born workers. Immigrant workers perceive higher levels of managerial support and greater ability to complete work during scheduled time. However, on more objective dimensions, immigrants' jobs are poorer than those of their Canadian‐born counterparts, specifically in terms of less access to collective agreement coverage, training, various extended benefits, as well as lower wages and higher incidence of self‐employment. We attempt to reconcile the differences in perceptions of job quality vs. objective outcomes by drawing on relative deprivation theory.