From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Arabs/Baha Abu-Laban
Throughout most of their history, Arabs in Canada have adapted well to their new environment. In the early period, energetic Syrian immigrants took to the road as pedlars carrying a wide range of goods, including yard goods, lace, ribbon, tablecloths, costume jewellery, Christian images and worship-related items, scapulars, shawls, beads, handkerchiefs, and perfume. The demand for their services was high, as evidenced by the growing number of participants and an increase in the variety of goods sold over a growing geographical area. While often overlooked, the important role which these pedlars played in the development of Canada cannot be overemphasized.
At the same time that pedlary was expanding around the turn of the century, many Syrians were also establishing themselves, on a relatively large scale, in different lines of business and industry. A close examination of the activities of Syrian immigrants reveals an interesting pattern of social and economic mobility. After a few years of selling on the road, successful pedlars were able to escape some of the hardships by opening their own stores and settling in a fixed location. In turn, a successful shopkeeper whose business outgrew local demand in a smaller community tended to branch out or move to a larger city. Finally, successful shopkeepers in larger cities tended to gravitate toward industrial or real estate ventures. This mobility created openings for new pedlars.
Generally, the entire Syrian ethnic group expected and experienced upward mobility. Judging from some of their biographies and occupational career patterns, a number of factors resulted in their success, chief among which were mutual support, a highly developed work ethic with emphasis on self-employment, and risk-tak-ing, resourcefulness, and self-denial. While some descendants of the early immigrants followed in their fathers’ footsteps, others were encouraged to get an education and embark on professional careers. With each generation, Arab-origin Canadians became more and more dispersed across a wide spectrum of occupations.
New-wave immigrants arriving from 1962 have reinforced the existing pattern because many have entered Canada with educational and occupational advantages. The evidence suggests that a significant number of recent immigrants entered managerial, professional, and technical fields, while others went into lower-level white-collar occupations. Those who were less qualified went into semi-skilled or unskilled occupations, and self-employment in a variety of occupations continues to appeal to post-war Arab immigrants. The main similarities in occupational choice between earlier and more recent Arab immigrants were the small proportions who actually went into farming, persistence (albeit on a much smaller scale) of a low occupational entry status, and continued preference for trade and self-employ-ment as an occupational track.
The 1991 census provides more precise information on the social and economic characteristics of the Arab community in Canada. What follows is based on a sample of 4,267 individuals of Arab descent and the information derived from this sample can be generalized safely to the larger Arab-Canadian population.
The educational achievements of Arab Canadians fifteen years of age and over are noteworthy. In 1991 nearly one out of four Arab Canadians had a university degree compared to 11 percent of the Canadian population in general. In addition, 14.3 percent adults had taken some university courses beyond high school and about one-third had either completed high school (15 percent) or received trades certification and other non-university training (17.9 percent). Almost 30 percent of Arab Canadians did not graduate from high school; of these 16.5 percent had completed a Grade 9 to 13 education, and only 12.8 percent had not gone past Grade 8. The comparable figure for those who had not completed high school in the general Canadian population was somewhat higher at 33 percent.
The level of educational attainment of the Arab community has increased, even when compared with the 1986 census. This improvement is a result partly of the relatively high educational qualifications of Arab immigrants and partly of parental emphasis on children’s education. Overall, the educational attainment of Arab Canadians exceeds the Canadian average.
In 1991 a new occupational classification system, the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC), was devised for census purposes which was unrelated to the classifications reported in earlier Canadian censuses. According this standard, more than 31 percent of Arab Canadians occupy senior and middle managerial or professional positions requiring the highest skill level. The number of senior managers who are Arab Canadians is quite small at 1.4 percent and the bulk of those reported immediately below this skill level are almost equally divided between middle managers and professionals. The next skill level includes six broad occupational categories which include semi-professionals and technicians, supervisors, foremen/women, administrative and senior clericals, sales and services, and skilled crafts and trades. Two of these occupational categories, namely, supervisors and foremen/women, are much less prevalent among Arab-origin Canadians than the other categories.
The remaining occupations grouped under the last two skill levels of the 1991 classification system account for 45 percent of the total, but the second-to-last skill level is twice as prevalent in the Arab-Canadian community as the lowest one. It is clear from the data that occupations in the clerical, sales, and service sectors are quite common in this group and together account for nearly three-quarters of the placements under the last two skill levels.
Areas of specialization among those Arabs with a post-secondary degree, certificate, or diploma – a total of 1,396 in the sample – include educational, recreational and counselling services (5.4 percent); fine and applied arts (4.1 percent); humanities and related fields (6.7 percent); social sciences and related fields (10.4 percent); commerce, management and business administration (20.0 percent); secretarial science (5.9 percent); agricultural and biological sciences/technologies (4.4 percent); engineering and applied sciences/technologies and trades (25.9 percent); health professions and sciences including nursing (9.6 percent); mathematics and physical sciences (7.2 percent); and other (0.4 percent). Clearly, professional certification in the fields of business and engineering is a goal pursued by nearly half of those Arab Canadians who have some post-secondary education. Typically, these occupational areas provide greater leeway for self-employment, which has been, and remains highly valued.
Turning to income, the 1991 census revealed the following total income from all sources received by individuals fifteen years of age and over during the calendar year 1990: 0.3 percent experienced losses; 20.9 percent were without income; 27.3 percent had income less than $10,000; 20.5 percent reported a total income between $10,000 and $19,999; 11.8 percent had an income between $20,000 and $29,999; 7.9 percent reported that their income was between $30,000 and $39,999; 4.2 percent had income within the $40,000–49,999 range; 4 percent were in the $50,000–69,999 income range; and 3.1 percent reported a total income of $70,000 or more. Compared to census data obtained in 1986, the individual income of Arab Canadians had deteriorated markedly during the intervening five years. For example, the percentage who reported a financial loss or an income ranging from zero to $9,999 increased from 37.9 percent in 1986 to 48.5 percent in 1991.
A similar picture emerges for total family income. In, 1990, for Arab Canadians fifteen years of age and over, about 0.5 percent sustained losses which probably occurred because of the failure of self-employment ventures. At the upper end, 6.2 percent reported that their income was $100,000 or more. The presence of these extremes notwithstanding, the data show that in comparison with the Canadian average family income, which was more than $50,000, the average family income for Arab Canadians is extremely low, at over $30,000.
Although Arab Canadians appear to compare favourably with the total Canadian population in terms of education and occupation, they do not seem to be doing correspondingly well in terms of income. Thus, it should not be surprising that, on the basis of the total income of an economic family or an unattached individual, size of the family, and size of the area of residence, Statistics Canada’s low-income cut-offs place 39.4 percent of the Arab adult population below the poverty line. In comparison, poverty statistics for Canada in 1990 – the reference year for income statistics in the 1991 census – show that the poverty rate for all families was 12.1 percent and for unattached individuals 34.1 percent.
The financial disadvantage suffered by Arab Canadians is probably caused by several factors, chief among which are a labour-force participation rate of 52.2 percent for Arab Canadians which is much lower than the 68 percent reported for the general Canadian population; a high rate of underemployment, particularly among immigrants whose past training and experience are often not recognized by Canadian professional accreditation bodies; and the presence of a sizeable number of recent immigrants and refugees from different regions of the Arab world who are still in the process of adapting to a new social and economic environment.
