From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Caribbean Peoples/Frances Henry
The economic life of Caribbean immigrants in Canada is strongly influenced by racism. In the past, Canada had been considered relatively racism-free, certainly as compared to the United Kingdom or the United States, and so Caribbean people who came to Canada during the 1970s and earlier were ill-prepared to counter racial discrimination in employment. Notwithstanding this discrimination, Caribbean immigrants in Canada and Ontario have a high rate of labour-force participation: more than 75 percent of both men and women are in the labour force. Contrary to popular opinion, both Caribbean immigrant women and men have a higher percentage for involvement in the workforce than Canadian-born women and men. That said, the percentage of men and women who hold managerial positions is substantially less than that of their Canadian-born counterparts (3.6 versus 9.2 percent). As well, there are far fewer Caribbean-born individuals who are supervisors and technicians (21.8 versus 25.2 percent). The most notable differences, however, are at the level of manual workers. In this category, there are many more Caribbean-born persons than Canadian-born (17.7 versus 5.6 percent).
With regard to income levels, older arrivals earn more money than recent arrivals and Caribbean women are probably as much affected by gender as by racism with respect to employment. Thus, Caribbean-born women experience the double jeopardy of being both black and female. Analyses of the earlier 1981 census data on income found that education and job qualifications had a significant influence on occupational status, which largely determined income. Although women had a slightly higher employment status, their average income was lower. This is explained in part because of the job clustering of women in nursing and other service occupations which are poorly paid. The relative importance of education for women was higher than that for men although it added little in real terms to their income.
Being middle-aged was only “weakly correlated with occupational status but more strongly with income.” Length of residence in Canada was positively associated with improved “occupational status and income” and gender had a major effect in reducing income. Being female reduced mean-employment income by more than $6,000, and this was only slightly reduced when all other factors, such as age, education, and qualification, were controlled.
Caribbean people also experience financial difficulties in the workplace. Problems arise when employers do not pay agreed upon salaries, withhold payment, or in other ways attempt to cheat the employee of money earned. A common experience of both men and women was their failure to advance in the jobs they held. Being passed over for promotion is today a more serious issue than attaining entry-level jobs. This issue is problematic in both white-collar jobs, where it might be expected, and in skilled and semi-skilled positions.
A frequently expressed complaint in the Caribbean community, especially among men, relates to racial harassment on the job. One study of Caribbean women found that thirty-nine out of a total sample of ninety admitted to experiencing racial discrimination on the job, while few mentioned gender discrimination. It would seem, therefore, that Caribbean women are more concerned with racial equality and racial discrimination and less with gender discrimination.
One result of racial discrimination is that it reinforces desires for self-employment and entrepreneurship. Establishing a small business has a powerful impact on the ability of persons of colour to be treated equally in the workforce. While this can be seen as a positive adaptive strategy, there are many limitations on Caribbean entrepreneurship. In the first instance, the majority of businesses are in the service or retail sectors which cater to the needs of the community. Thus, in Canada as in the United Kingdom, Caribbean-owned businesses are in the food sector – restaurants, fast-food outlets, and groceries; entertainment – record and music stores, booking and impresario services for live performances; retail clothing – stores for African-styled garments and specially designed T-shirts, tailoring and dressmaking; grooming – barbershops, hairdressers, and cosmeticians; and travel agencies. There are also an increasing number of businesses that provide services such as insurance and immigration services, importation of specialty goods for the Caribbean market, and freight services in order to send goods home. The advantage of small, ethnic-group–oriented businesses is that they supply a service or product to a “captive market.” When, however, entrepreneurs want to expand beyond their own ethnic niche, they often encounter the unwillingness of lending institutions to provide the necessary loans to peoples of Caribbean origins. This problem was, in part, rectified in 1993 when the government of Ontario provided substantial funding to a Black Credit Union sponsored by the Jamaican Canadian Association in an effort to improve the flow of capital into the community.
Caribbean entrepreneurship is of particular importance not only in response to the need for economic survival but also because it is an important factor in the institutional completeness of immigrant communities. But even successful Caribbean businesses are frequently unable to remain competitive, expand their activities, or enter into markets outside their own ethnic members. Other than limited access to credit, they lack the information, contacts, and networking abilities to enter into the economic mainstream establishments.
