From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Jamaicans/George E. Eaton
The pattern of arrival, volume, and occupational composition of Jamaican immigration have all been conditioned by immigration policy, especially Canada’s needs for skilled workers. During the late 1960s, highly qualified and trained professional, technical, and managerial personnel, predominantly male, accounted for about 10 percent of Jamaican immigrants, and, if dependants are excluded, for as much as 16 percent of those of working age. Clerical and other skilled categories accounted for another 33 percent.
During the 1970s a steady but somewhat smaller inflow of professional and technical personnel was complemented by a significant increase in entrepreneurial and managerial cadres. Combined, these categories contributed about 6 percent of immigrants. The mix between clerical and skilled workers also changed. The former fell in number, but was offset by an increase in the latter, particularly of assembly, fabricating, and manufacturing workers, who accounted for about 17 percent of Jamaican immigrants between 1970 and 1974. Numbers of service workers, including household help, also peaked during the early 1970s at about 35 percent, and then tapered off dramatically. Fluctuations in occupational composition and skill mix continued during the 1980s and 1990s, though with fewer Jamaicans arriving.
The 1986 census confirmed that Jamaican immigrants had achieved a remarkably high level of economic participation, with more than 75 percent of both men and women full-time in the labour force. For Metropolitan Toronto, participation was even greater, and well above the Canadian norm – nearly 79 percent for women and 86 percent for men. When part-time work was taken into account, only 1.2 percent of Jamaican-born men and women did not work, as compared with the all-Canada rate of 1.5 percent for women and 1.6 percent for men.
Approximately 6 percent of men and nearly 5 percent of women were in upper-middle/other-manager occupations, as against the all-Canadian norm of 15 percent for men and 9 percent for women. Significant numbers were supervisors or technicians. In manual work there were considerably more Jamaican-born, both men and women.
Jamaican/Caribbean–origin families earned considerably less than Canadian-born (and other foreign-born). Jamaican women also earned less than their male counterparts but did almost as well as Canadian-born women, particularly if they had arrived with relatively high educational attainment, as was the case before 1971. Those who had arrived before 1971 earned roughly 80 percent of the income earned by Canadian-born females. Jamaican-born women could expect to benefit from the pay-equity legislation enacted in the last decade.
Jamaican/Caribbean–born males in 1986 earned 69 percent of the employment income achieved by their Canadian-born counterparts, and the earnings of university-trained men were just slightly higher, at 70 percent. English speaking, well educated and trained, and from a country with a British-style parliamentary, legal, and administrative system, they had arrived in Canada expecting that their skills and abilities would be used in the customary manner. Soon, however, they found themselves up against the “glass ceiling” of prejudice at higher professional and management levels, certainly in the private sector, as qualifications, skills, and experience became secondary to “Canadian experience” (a characteristic shared with other immigrant groups) and to race/colour prejudice.
Jamaicans in Canada have sought to be productive, as evidenced by a remarkably high rate of labour-force participation. It is an ethnocultural group with a not-insignificant number of qualified people in services, education, financial services, health-care delivery and medicine, law, and public administration. There is a sizeable group of supervisory and technical personnel, and the majority are skilled and semi-skilled, not unlike the labour force at large. Nevertheless, census data on income disparities, as well as a number of well-documented studies since 1980, support the view that Jamaicans have been placed at a systematic disadvantage in employment and income, thus limiting their contribution to Canadian society.
Informal barriers to employment and career prospects have, however, served as a spur to entrepreneurial activity, especially among working- and middle-class people most susceptible to discriminatory practices. Jamaicans (along with other Caribbeans) have begun, in concentrated areas of major cities such as Toronto and Montreal, to supply services required by members of the communities, ranging from personal care (hair dressing and barber shops), music and video outlets, and retail food outlets (grocery stores) to professional services such as law and medicine, immigration consulting, travel and freight, automotive repairs, refrigeration services, real estate, insurance, financial services, accountancy, and specialized bookstores.
