Sociology 339F Immigration and Employment http:www'utoronto'caethnicstudiesSOC339'html

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Sociology 339FImmigration and Employmenthttp//
www.utoronto.ca/ethnicstudies/SOC339.html

• Instructor Prof. Jeffrey G. Reitz
• Department of Sociology
• Ethnic, Immigration and Pluralism Studies
• Munk Centre for International Studies
• University of Toronto
• Fall, 2007

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Sociology 339FImmigration and EmploymentSession
8 October 30Immigrants and labour unions

• Readings
• Jeffrey G. Reitz and Anil Verma, "Immigration,
  Race, and Labor Unionization and Wages in the
  Canadian Labor Market," Industrial Relations 43,
  4 (October 2004) 835-54.
• Gerald Hunt and David Rayside, Labor Union
  Response to Diversity in Canada and the United
  States, Industrial Relations, 39, 3 2000, pp.
  401-417, 434-444.

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Agenda

• General Union Effects in Labour Markets
• Review of Immigrant and Minority Concentrations
  in the Labour Market
• Labour Unions Impact on Immigrants and
  Minorities
• Immigrant Impact on Labour Unions

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Union Effects in Labour Markets

• Unions historically established basic employment
  standards
• Unions today sources of equality or inequality?
• Union wages higher by 15-25
• Union premium greater for more disadvantaged
  workers
• Young, less educated
• In US blacks, but not women
• Comparatively, stronger unions create greater
  equality
• Crossnational, Canada-US, inter-urban
• Comparatively, stronger unions mean a lower wage
  premium
• The threat effect
• Union decline leads to greater inequality
• Reasons for union decline in the US v. Canada

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Immigrant Concentrations in the Labour Market

• Three types of concentration
• Occupations
• Work groups and networks
• Minority businesses and ethnic economy
• Ethnic and gender variations in ethnic
  occupations
• Ethnic networks in different work settings
• Co-workers
• Supervisors
• Subordinates
• Customers
• Ethnic occupations most often non-union

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Labour Unions Impact on Immigrants

• How do immigrants get union jobs?
• Hired in unionized workplaces
• Working in firms that unions succeed in
  certifying
• Working in trades
• Obstacles
• Immigrants as threat to union members
• Immigrants as new union prospects
• Recent Canadian data on immigrants and minorities
  in labour unions
• Do immigrants in unions get higher wages?
• Do immigrants get higher wages in unionized
  labour markets?
• Unions and immigrant wages

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Immigrants Impact on Labour Unions

• Do immigrants weaken the labour movement?
• Union policies
• Union practices
• US patterns, Canadian patterns

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Issues

• Can unions organize immigrant workers more
  quickly?
• Is there a trade-off of wages v. equity for
  unions?

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Sociology 339FImmigration and EmploymentNext
week Session 9 November 6Children of
immigrantsand the second generation

• Readings
• Monica Boyd, Educational attainments of
  immigrant offspring success or segmented
  assimilation? International Migration Review,
  36(4), 2002 1037-1061.
• Krishna Pendakur and Ravi Pendakur, Colour my
  world have earnings gaps for Canadian-born
  ethnic minorities changed over time? Canadian
  Public Policy 28,4 (2002) 489-