Economic Life

Data provided by Immigration Canada list the intended occupations of those who have become permanent residents of Canada. While there is no guarantee that individuals will actually obtain work in the field they have specified, the data provide some sense of the occupational backgrounds of immigrants.

For the purposes of this entry, the original categories used by Immigration Canada have been condensed into five more general categories: entrepreneurial and managerial (entrepreneurs, investors, and administrators); professional (sciences, engineering, social sciences, teaching, health, religion, art, sports); white-collar (clerical occupations and sales and services); blue-collar (processing, machining, assembling, construction, other crafts); and other (all those occupations that cannot be classified in the previous categories). Of those classified as professional, 45 percent are in the natural sciences and engineering, followed by 18 percent each in teaching and health-related occupations and 8 percent in social sciences. White-collar occupations are mostly clerical and service-related, with only 10 percent in sales. Blue-collar occupations are mostly in manufacturing, assembling, repairs, construction, and transportation.

These general patterns identify some important characteristics of the recent Chilean migration to Canada. First, immigrants are not from one segment of the Chilean population, such as the working class, but rather represent the whole Chilean social structure, with a significant number from the middle and upper-middle classes. Secondly, Chilean immigrants are mostly urban. The proportion in rural occupations such as farming, fishing, and forestry is insignificant, less than 1 percent. Finally, Chilean immigrants have high levels of skills and education. For example, the proportion of intended occupations in the sciences and engineering is 8 percent, a significant number since in 1990 these occupations represented only 6 percent of the Canadian labour force.

Immigration Canada has also provided data for the intended occupations of males and females in 1980 and 1981. This data shows some clear differences between males and females. A large proportion of women (51 percent) were concentrated in the professional and white-collar areas, while males were clearly dominant within the blue-collar occupations. Further, there were differences within each of these specific areas. In professional occupations, women were more concentrated in teaching and health-related occupations, while men were more concentrated in the natural sciences and engineering. There was a similar trend in white-collar occupations, where there was a significant female presence in clerical occupations while males concentrated more in services.

Almost half (45 percent) of the Chileans who became permanent residents of Canada between 1973 and 1992 reported intended occupations. The rest (55 percent), who were classified as dependants, were children, students, spouses, and others such as grandparents. The percentage of dependents among Chilean immigrants is relatively high compared with Canada as a whole, where only 47 percent of the population had dependent status in 1990.

There is a significant difference between intended occupation upon arrival and actual employment. Because many Chilean immigrants had only a rudimentary knowledge of English or French, they often ended up in occupations that were totally unrelated to their occupational backgrounds. A lack of Canadian experience was also an obstacle for many immigrants. For professionals and many technicians, the situation was more complicated since, in order to practise in Canada, they had to be recognized by Canadian professional and technical associations. Hence, language, lack of experience in Canada, and professional restrictions constituted the most important barriers to the Chileans’ finding employment in the occupations for which they were educated or trained.

In the long term, however, most immigrants from Chile have eventually been able to find employment related to their previous occupations. Many professionals were able either to have their Chilean professional degrees accepted or to return to university to obtain new degrees and secure stable jobs in their areas of specialization. Stability has been less certain for those in white-collar and blue-collar occupations. Many Chileans have successfully engaged in new economic ventures in Canada, such as opening stores, creating consulting companies, and publishing magazines and newspapers. An interesting phenomenon has been the integration of the majority of women into the labour market. Many women who defined themselves as homemakers when they arrived in Canada found it necessary to find paid employment in order to increase the household income.