economic history

www.elsevier.com/locate/wsif

Women’s Studies International Forum 27 (2004) 135–148

Gender, work and migration: Deskilling Chinese

immigrant women in Canada

Guida Man

School of Social Sciences, Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies, York University,

4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3

Available online 10 July 2004

Synopsis

The Chinese have constituted the largest immigrant group entering Canada since 1987. This paper focuses on the paid work

experience of Chinese immigrant women from Hong Kong and Mainland China who were highly educated, skilled

professionals in their home country. It demonstrates that these immigrant women are being deskilled in Canada and this

deskilling is complicated by the contradictory processes of globalization and economic restructuring, with its polarizing effects

along axis of gender, race, ethnicity, class and citizenship. Gendered and racialized institutional processes in the form of state

policies and practices, professional accreditation systems, employers’ requirement for ‘‘Canadian experience’’ and labor market

conditions marginalize Chinese immigrant women. As a result, they are being channeled into menial, part-time, insecure

positions or becoming unemployed. In order for Chinese immigrant women to become equal and active participants in Canadian

society the provision of inclusive programs and policies is necessary.

D 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1 For a critique of the point system, see Man (1998).

Introduction

The new Canadian Immigration and Refugee Pro-

tection Act (IRPA), which replaces the Immigration

Act of 1976, was implemented on June 28, 2002. In

introducing the new Act Citizenship and Immigration

Canada’s primary strategic objective is to ensure that

‘‘immigration results in the greatest possible economic

and social benefits for Canada’’ (CIC, 2002a). Ac-

cordingly, the state carries out many activities to

achieve those goals, the first of which is the selective

admission of permanent residents who are skilled

workers, investors and entrepreneurs, i.e. immigrants

who are most eligible to contribute to Canada’s eco-

nomic, cultural and social growth. For the skilled

0277-5395/$ - see front matter D 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2004.06.004

worker category, the new Act maintains the system

by which immigrants are chosen for their skills, but

sets higher criteria with regard to education, knowl-

edge of official languages, work experience, age,

arranged employment in Canada and adaptability.

Thus the new immigration policy directly links the

recruitment of immigrants with human capital with its

goal of accomplishing ‘‘competitive advantage’’ (Ber-

neria, 1999) in an era of economic globalization.

The prioritizing of highly educated, skilled immi-

grants and business personnel has historically been the

objective of the Canadian state, especially since 1967,

when the purportedly ‘‘non-discriminatory’’ 1 points

2 See ‘‘Immigration by Class: Family, Business, Skilled

Worker, Refugees and Others: Top Asian Countries. Available at

www.asiapacificresearch.ca/stats/peopole/Pi2percent.cfm). 3

Preliminary focus group data of the study ‘‘Transantional

Citizenship and Social Cohesion: Recent Immigrants from Hong

Kong to Canada’’ by Audrey Kobayashi, David Ley, Guida Man,

Valerie Preston and Myer Siemiatycki does confirm this hypothesis.

G. Man / Women’s Studies International Forum 27 (2004) 135–148136

system was introduced into Canadian immigration

policy. With the intensification of economic global-

ization since the early 1980s and Canada’s participa-

tion in Canada–U.S. Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA)

and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),

the Canadian neoliberal state underwent rapid econom-

ic restructuring, downsizing, privatization and dereg-

ulation in order to achieve the goal of being a ‘‘lean

state’’(Shields & Evans, 1998). Concomitantly, the

state developed new immigration initiatives to priori-

tize the highly skilled as well as business immigrants to

Canada. Obviously, Canada is not the only country

pursuing policy changes to procure highly skilled

immigrants, other post-industrial nations (notably the

United States and Australia) too have undergone

similar policy transformations (Boyd, 2001; Cornelius,

Espenshade, & Salehyan, 2001; Fincher, Foster, Giles,

& Preston, 1994). The selective immigration policy

and the targeting of skilled immigrants has been

contentious. On the one hand, the state’s assumption

behind the new initiatives is that highly skilled jobs are

in demand in the new economic order (Shields, 1995).

The strategy therefore is to bolster Canada’s compet-

itiveness in the global market place with a skilled, fluid

and flexible labor force that would provide Canada

with a ‘‘comparative advantage’’ (Brecher & Costello,

1994) in the post-industrial era of global competition.

In such a political and economic climate, it is expected

that ‘‘skilled’’ immigrant workers, unlike their ‘‘un-

skilled’’ counterparts, would enjoy a smooth transition

in reinserting themselves in the Canadian labor market.

On the other hand, there is growing concern that the

selective policies will exacerbate the differential and

negative impact on women, particularly poor women

and women of color (Arat-Koc, 1999).

Feminist scholars have long drawn attention to the

plight of immigrant women, particularly working class

and refugee women in Canada (e.g. Arat-Koc, 1999;

Giles & Preston, 2003; Ng, 1993). In recent years, a

number of studies have addressed the impact of

neoliberal policies on women in general (Armstrong,

1996; Brodie, 1995; Luxton & Reiter, 1997), and on

immigrant women of color in particular (Das Gupta,

1999; Lee, 1999). These studies shed light on the

experience of the multiple oppressions of working

class immigrant women. More recently, there is an

emerging literature on immigrant women who are

highly educated, skilled professionals (Iredale, 2001;

Man, 1995, 1997, 2002; Mojab, 1999; Preston & Man,

1999; Salaff, 1997, 2000). These studies found that

many middle-class immigrant women too encountered

difficulties in finding employment commensurate with

their qualifications in the new country.

Since 1987, the Chinese have constituted the

largest immigrant group entering Canada. As a result

of the increasing emphasis on recruiting skilled pro-

fessionals to Canada, a high percentage of recent

immigrants who are admitted come under this cate-

gory. For example, in 2000, economic immigrants

(comprising of business immigrants as well as skilled

workers) constituted 58% of all immigrants coming to

Canada. In 1997, 59% of immigrant from China and

53% of those from Hong Kong were skilled workers.

By 2000, the skilled immigrants from China had

climbed to 75%, while those from Hong Kong had

dwindled to 30%. 2 The decline in Hong Kong immi-

grants may be partially ascribed to the negative image

of Canada, particularly news of unemployment and

underemployment in Canada that Hong Kong resi-

dents receive from their friends and relatives. 3

In the last decade, much media attention had been

paid to the wealthiest Hong Kong business immi-

grants (Man, 1995), thereby creating a distorted and

stereotypical image of Chinese immigrants and exac-

erbating racial tension. As a Chinese ‘‘immigrant’’

woman academic living in Canada, I am aware of

differences among Chinese immigrants and in this

paper I only focus on the employment experience in

Canada of middle-class Chinese immigrant women

who were highly educated, skilled professionals in

their home country. I argue that contrary to the state’s

assertion that the new economy requires highly skilled

labor, these skilled Chinese immigrant women in the

paid labor market do not fare well in the context of a

new political and economic environment. This article

demonstrates that immigrant women’s employment

experience in Canada is complicated by gendered

and racialized institutional processes in the form of

state policies and practices, professional accreditation

G. Man / Women’s Studies International Forum 27 (2004) 135–148 137

systems, employers’ requirement for ‘‘Canadian ex-

perience’’ and labor market conditions. The demands

on immigrant women’s reproductive labor in the home

also affect these women but I will not address this

here (but see Salaff & Greve, 2004).

In using the term ‘‘immigrant’’ women, I am not

referring to the legal, technical notion of the word (i.e.,

someone who is legally not a Canadian citizen).

Rather, I am employing the common sense usage of

the word to refer to people who are seen as immigrants

by others, regardless of their formal legal status.

Iredale (2001) defines skilled workers as those who

have university degrees and/or extensive experiences

in various fields. Citizenship and Immigration Canada

(2002a, 2002b, 2003) has a more operative definition.

To be eligible to immigrate as a skilled migrant, the

new immigration regulations emphasize education,

English or French language abilities and work expe-

rience involving certain skills, rather than specific

occupations. Applicants need to score a minimum of

75 out of a possible 100 points to qualify. They also

have to have at least one year of experience working

in an occupation in specified skill categories described

in the National Occupational Classification developed

by Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC).

For the purpose of this paper, I have adopted Raghur-

am’s (2000) definition of skilled workers as ‘‘those

with some tertiary education and in possession of

skills valued in the labor market’’, and with full

cognizance of the role of skill as ‘‘mediated by the

unequal distribution of power along the lines of

gender, class, race, language, ethnicity, national origin

and the state of the economy’’ (Mojab, 2000, p. 33).

This paper is informed by the notion that race,

gender and class are socially constructed relations that

are integral to the formation of contemporary social

life (Ng, 1993). Race, gender and class are not

distinct, unitary entities that operate separately but

must be conceptualized as intersecting, fluid and

dynamic and subject to temporal and spatial fluctua-

tions. Thus they appear in divergent forms in different

social and historical periods.

Neoliberal restructuring

Since the 1980s, in Canada as elsewhere, the

Keynesian welfare state has been drastically eroded

and replaced by the neoliberal state that valorizes the

private over the public (Jessop, 1993). The dominant

discourse argues for the natural and the inevitability of

the mechanisms of globalization, structural adjust-

ment, privatization and deregulations, thereby closing

off challenges and debates for possible alternative

strategies and action. Feminist scholars have asserted

that restructuring is a gendered process since social

welfare programs and policies affect women’s mate-

rial conditions and shape gender relationships (Arm-

strong, 1996; Bakker, 1996; Brodie, 1995; Luxton &

Reiter, 1997). Previously state-subsidized programs

are being downsized or privatized and people in need

of treatment are being deinstitutionalized. The work of

healthcare, childcare and elderly care is being pushed

back into the home and downloaded onto the unpaid

work of women who are expected to be the primary

caregivers due to their gender. Moreover, ‘‘as services

and responsibilities are shifted from the public to the

private, they become differently encoded, constructed

and regulated’’ (Brodie, 1995, p. 54). Given the over-

representation of women as users of social and com-

munity services, as welfare recipients and as employ-

ees in the public sector (e.g. social workers, childcare

workers, nurses, etc.), government downloading and

budget cuts to these services and programs affect them

much more drastically. As a result, many women are

forced to leave the paid labor force or settle for low-

paying part-time employment to meet these caring

needs. Many women lose their jobs, or are being

deskilled in a leaner and meaner work environment

(Armstrong, 1996). Those women who seek employ-

ment are being channeled into the private sector as

part-time, flexible labor, with no benefits or job

security.

Neoliberal restructuring has also served to mar-

ginalize immigrants (Shields, 2002). The dismantling

of social support programs and the fostering of

highly bifurcated labor markets undermine immi-

grants’ ability to successfully integrate into their

host society. As a result, this segment of the popu-

lation becomes highly susceptible to the problems of

social exclusion. In the new labor market, immi-

grants, and in particular immigrant women of color,

are increasingly being used as ‘‘flexible’’ and dis-

posable labor, suited to the demands of the global-

ized economy (De Wolff, 2003; Vosko, Zukewich, &

Cranford, 2003).

G. Man / Women’s Studies International Forum 27 (2004) 135–148138

Chinese immigrant women in Canada

Migration from Hong Kong to Canada has been

increasing since the introduction of the ‘‘point’’ sys-

tem in 1967. Migration escalated rapidly in the 1980s,

so much so that by 1987, Hong Kong became the

number one source country for immigrants to Canada

and remained so until 1997 (see Employment and

Immigration Canada, 1987–93; Citizenship and Im-

migration Canada, 1994–2003). The mass exodus of

people from Hong Kong was prompted by the uncer-

tainties arising from the reversion of Hong Kong to

Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

The exodus of Hong Kong people coincided with

changes in immigration policies in countries such as

Canada, Australia and later on the United States. These

neoliberal states were eager to recruit immigrants with

human capital and economic assets to revitalize their

economies and to bolster their competitiveness in the

global market. In Canada, new procedures in the

business immigration programme designed to attract

highly qualified entrepreneurs were adopted in January

1984. In January 1986, the investor component was

introduced to further attract eligible immigrants with

surplus money for investments (see Borowski & Nash,

1994). These initiatives did not privilege women since

only 10.7% of entrepreneur immigrants in 1984 and

12.7% in 1986/87 were women. 4

Immigration from Hong Kong started to dwindle in

the post-1997 period as a result of the seemingly

smooth transition of power from British to Chinese

sovereignty which increased the confidence in polit-

ical stability of Hong Kong among its people. Fur-

thermore, the unemployment and underemployment

of many Hong Kong immigrants in Canada has

prompted a stream of returned migration. Since the

1990s, the number of Chinese immigrants from Main-

land China has been increasing steadily and they now

form the single largest group of immigrants coming to

Canada (CIC, 1999). Many of the new immigrants are

highly educated professionals in their home country

and come to Canada under the ‘‘other independent’’

class as skilled workers and professionals.

4 The figures of 10.7% and 12.7% for female entrepreneur

immigrants were lower than the female figures for the Canadian

entrepreneur population as a whole. See EIC PPDB 1985, Tables

2.6, 3.5, 3.6; EIC Strategic Policy and Planning 1990, 27.

It is worth noting here that for an ‘‘independent

class’’ (including skilled workers, entrepreneurs,

investors and self-employed) immigrant, s/he can enter

Canada either as a principal applicant, or as a depen-

dent. The difference between a principal applicant and

a dependent is that specific selection criteria are used

to assess a principal applicant, but not her/his depend-

ent(s). It is therefore important that the most eligible

member of the family (i.e. the person who is likely to

accumulate the most points) apply as a principal

applicant and designate the other family members as

dependents. Within a family unit, the wife and children

are likely to immigrate as dependents.

Despite their high education and training many

Chinese immigrant women professionals in my study

did not enter Canada under the ‘‘skilled worker’’

category. Rather, they entered as dependents of their

husbands who are the principal applicants under the

economic class category. This is so because ‘‘skill’’ is

‘‘constructed and negotiated through ideological and

political processes’’ (Arat-Koc, 1999, p. 284). Gender

biases in definitions of education, work and skill

means that women’s skills and personal qualities are

either excluded or undervalued. Hence the immigra-

tion processes reproduce and structure inequality

within in the family by rendering one spouse (typi-

cally the wife) legally dependent on the other (Ng,

1993). This gender differentiation in immigration

status (principal applicant versus dependents) indi-

cates the structural difference between male and

female immigrations with regard to their occupation

and status in their home country as well as in Canada.

Methodology

In my research on Chinese women from Hong

Kong and Mainland China, I have placed women as

the subject of the inquiry (Ng, 1993) and linked their

accounts to the larger social, economic and political

processes in society in which their experiences are

embedded. Instead of starting with preconceived

notions, hypotheses or theories originating in the

discourse and using the everyday world of experience

as a resource to support the sociological discourse, the

‘‘standpoint of women’’ shifts the sociological prob-

lematic from the discourse to the everyday world.

This methodology has enabled me to investigate how

individual Chinese immigrant women as subjects

G. Man / Women’s Studies International Forum 27 (2004) 135–148 139

account for their situations and to demonstrate how

their subjective experiences articulate with larger

social, economic and political relations.

The Chinese come from diverse social, cultural,

economic, political, sexual locations and different

geographical sites and they speak various dialects.

They are therefore not a homogeneous group. More-

over, the Hong Kong Chinese differ from those from

Mainland China as they have lived in different social,

political and economic systems. While Hong Kong

immigrants have lived in a capitalist system under

colonial rule for 99 years, people from Mainland

China have lived under a communist regime. In

general, the HK women are more affluent and had

personal assets prior to immigrating to Canada in

comparison to their counterparts from China. But

the immigration policy selects only the highly edu-

cated and ‘‘skilled’’ professionals, ensuring that those

Chinese who are admitted are from middle-class

backgrounds, regardless of whether they are from

China, Hong Kong, or other countries. Other discrim-

inatory measures such as employer’s requirement of

‘‘Canadian experience’’, the lack of recognition of

foreign degrees and the laborious process of recerti-

fication of foreign professional degrees also have a

homogenizing effect on the new immigrants, render-

ing obsolete the previous experiences of immigrants

in their home countries. In the rest of the paper I will

demonstrate how institutional policies and practices

have exacerbated the difficulties facing new Chinese

immigrant women, transforming their skills into flex-

ible labor, changing their everyday experience in the

new country and subjugating them to unequal treat-

ment in the labor market and in the home.

The sample

The research data for the immigrant women from

China is derived from focus group and individual

interviews with 20 women who have immigrated to

Canada between 1994 and 1999. The data for the

immigrant women from Hong Kong has been gener-

ated through in depth interviews with thirty women

who have immigrated to Canada with their families

between 1986 and 1993. Five were living in Vancou-

ver at the time of the interview and the rest were living

in Toronto. For the purpose of clarity, for the rest of the

paper, I will refer to the immigrant women from Hong

Kong as HK women and the women from Mainland

China as Mainland women. I have artificially delin-

eated women’s work into the spheres of paid work and

household work for investigative purposes although in

actuality, these two spheres are very much interrelated.

Paid work

Institutional and labor market processes

Chinese immigrant women’s employment oppor-

tunities are predicated on labor market conditions as

well as gendered and racialized institutional process-

es. Institutional processes here refer to those policies

and practices embedded in government, law, educa-

tion and professional systems. Such processes can

engender and perpetuate social injustice in our society.

Although almost all the women I interviewed had

come in as dependents of their husbands, many are

highly educated, particularly, the Mainland women.

Of this group, one has a masters degree, 15 have

bachelors degrees and four have tertiary diplomas.

Amongst the HK women, one has a masters degree,

nine have bachelors degree, eight have diplomas, two

have some post-secondary education and the rest have

high school education. The higher education of the

Mainland women could be attributed to the fact that

the Mainland women came to Canada more recently

than the HK women and were therefore subjected to

even more stringent requirements by the immigration

criterion. While 15 of the 30 HK women worked in

professional/administrative positions or quasi-profes-

sional positions in their home country, all 20 of the

Mainland women had worked as professionals prior to

emigration in fields such as research, teaching, engi-

neering, medicine, computer science, accounting,

business and administration. At the time of the inter-

views, however, only three Mainland women were

employed in professional positions none of whom had

children. Of the rest, five were marginally employed

and 11 were unemployed. Among the HK women,

three were employed in similar fields prior to emi-

gration, two had managerial/supervisory positions and

the rest either worked in clerical positions, were self-

employed or ran their own or their husband’s small

business. A large number of them were housewives

(8). Only three declared themselves as unemployed.

5 Precarious employment refers to ‘‘those forms of work

involving atypical employment contracts, limited social benefits and

statutory entitlements, job security, low job tenure, low wages and

high risks of ill health’’ (Vosko et al., 2003).

G. Man / Women’s Studies International Forum 27 (2004) 135–148140

Within a household, the decision to emigrate

necessitates that the family pool their resources. In

all patriarchal societies, male education and skills are

assigned more value than female education and skills.

In order to maximize their opportunity for immigra-

tion admission, male family members are often des-

ignated as the principal applicant. As a result, the

majority of these women came to Canada under the

family immigrant status as dependents of their hus-

bands, who are the principal applicants. The gender-

ing of principal and non-principal applicants has far

reaching consequences. As dependents, the women

are treated as being ‘‘not destined for the labor

market’’ due to institutionalized racist and sexist

practices embedded in the immigration process. In

fact, women in China have always participated along-

side their male counterparts in productive processes

(Association for the Advancement of Feminism,

1993).

While feminists have made some inroads in im-

proving the working conditions of women, gender and

racial discriminatory practices in employment contin-

ue to be prevalent (Kerr, 1996). The downward

leveling effect of restructuring, privatization and de-

regulation has aggravated labor market conditions by

lowering wages and fostering part-time, insecure,

contingent employment. This has a polarizing effect

along gender, race, ethnicity and class lines. Predict-

ably, immigrant women’s employment has been ad-

versely affected. Numerous studies have found that

immigrant women and racialized groups now face

greater challenges in getting established in the job

market and are increasingly located in disproportion-

ate numbers in low-wage, contingent forms of em-

ployment especially in service, sales and production

jobs (Badets & Howatson-Leo, 2000; Smith & Jack-

son, 2002). Minority women and immigrant women

of color, in particular, have a propensity to be chan-

neled into ‘‘secondary’’ employment and they tend to

stay in it through their working careers (Hiebert,

1997). Previous studies have also found that immi-

grant women have higher unemployment rates than

Canadian-born women (Badets & Howatson-Leo,

2000; Boyd, 1992).

As neoliberal restructuring programs intensify, we

see a drastic reduction of immigrants’ earning power.

In 1980, both male and female immigrant groups had

earnings above the Canadian average, a reflection of

the generally higher education levels of the immigrant

population but by 1996, these figures had fallen

significantly below average. Female immigrant eco-

nomic principal applicant earnings dropped from

around $21,000 in 1980 to about $16,000 in 1996 in

comparison with Canadian female average earnings

which increased from just under $19,000 to nearly

$21,000. Male immigrant economic principal appli-

cant earnings also tumbled from $40,000 in 1980 to

$25,000 in 1996, while Canadian male average earn-

ings remained virtually unchanged at just under

$35,000 per year in 1999 (Grant & Thompson,

2000, p. 5).

In the last decade, the labor force participation of

immigrant women in Canada has also fallen and is

much lower than that of either Canadian-born people

or immigrant men. According to Statistics Canada,

between 1986 and 1996 employment rates for immi-

grant men aged between 25 and 44 fell from 81% to

71%, while that of immigrant women of the same age

group fell from 58% to 51%. In the same period

employment rates for Canadian-born women however

rose 8% to 73% (Badets & Howatson-Leo, 1999)

even though immigrant women generally have higher

educational attainments than their Canadian-born

counterparts. For example, Badets and Howatson-

Leo’s (1999) study found that recent immigrant wom-

en and men are more likely than their Canadian-born

counterparts to have completed university education

(31% and 36% versus 18% and 20%). Yet this does

not improve their chances of employment in Canada,

particularly in professional positions (Man, 2001;

2002; Mojab, 1999; Travato & Grindstaff, 1986).

The devaluation of international credentials and

experience has been seen by some as rooted in the

nature of capitalism (Mojab, 2000; Shields, 1996).

Regardless of education and experience, immigrants

are treated as a source of cheap labor and relegated to

low paid, menial positions. These positions are often

precarious, 5 with part-time, flexible hours and no

security or benefits and employment in these sectors

is a highly gendered and racialized phenomenon

(Cranford & Vosko, 2003; De Wolff, 2003; Galabuzi,

6 See CASW/ACTS ‘‘Assessment of Foreign Trained Social

Worker’s Degree’’ www.casw-acts.ca/swassessment_e.htm.

G. Man / Women’s Studies Internatio

2001; Ornstien, 2000; Vosko et al., 2003). Li (2000)

contends that the central issue is not so much a

problem of individual employer decisions but of labor

market discrimination. Institutionalized racist and

sexist processes in the labor market discriminate

against immigrants in general, and immigrant women

in particular, making it very difficult for them to find

employment commensurate with their credentials.

The employment opportunities for immigrant

women of color in a gender segregated, racialized

and globalized labor market are even more seriously

jeopardized. Boyd (1992) found that being foreign-

born, a member of a visible minority group or female

has a cumulative effect such that foreign-born women

of color received the lowest wages and salaries of all

workers. Immigrant women from developing

countries, who do not have English or French lan-

guage skills, or the ‘‘appropriate’’ educational back-

ground, are prone to being ghettoized in low-paid

menial labor (Das Gupta, 1996; Ng, 1993).

Previous studies have found that despite their

education and skills, the employment experiences of

Chinese immigrant women were marred by difficul-

ties (Man, 1995, 1997, 2002; Preston & Man, 1999).

Similarly, the 1996 census data reveal that with regard

to education, although a higher percentage (17.5%) of

Chinese immigrant women (foreign-born) have

obtained a bachelor’s degree or higher as compared

to ‘‘other Canadians’’, both female and male (12.2%

and 14%, respectively). However, fewer Chinese

immigrant women have been able to enter the highly

coveted managerial and professional occupations

(3.7% and 8.5%, respectively) as compared to ‘‘other

Canadian’’ women (3.8% and 9.8%, respectively) and

‘‘other Canadian’’ men (8.3% and 9.3%, respectively;

Man, 2003, p. 225, Tables 10.3 and 10.4).

Comparisons between the 1986 census data (i.e.,

the early period of neoliberal policies) and 1996 census

data (when neoliberal policies have become well

entrenched) on education and occupation of Chinese

immigrant women (foreign born) is even more reveal-

ing. In 1996 a much higher percentage of Chinese

immigrant women have a university degree as com-

pared to 1986 (17.5% and 12.8%, respectively), yet the

opportunity for Chinese immigrant women to enter

professional,semi-professionalandtechnicianpositions

is only slightly higher than in 1996 (10.4% and 9.9%,

respectively; Man, 2003, p. 225, Tables 10.3 and 10.4).

Chinese immigrant women’s employment experience

When asked about their employment experience,

the women in my studies echoed the difficulties that

other immigrant women of color have voiced, i.e.

those posed by requirement of ‘‘Canadian experi-

ence’’, by employers’ reluctance to recognize immi-

grant women’s qualifications and experience from

their own countries and by racism in the labor market

(George, 1998; Man, 1997). Several HK women

became so exasperated with their job search that they

gave up the idea of entering the labor force altogether.

Their material conditions afforded them the choice of

becoming full-time homemakers and taking care of

their children, although they were unhappy with this

situation. A HK woman who was a former adminis-

trator told me, ‘‘I have always worked my whole life. I

enjoy working. I’m not old, I don’t like sitting home

and do nothing. . ..’’ Both the HK women and the Mainland women spoke of the monetary and emo-

tional reasons for the need to find employment as

soon as possible, particularly among the Mainland

women. Although most of the HK women have

brought money with them, they feared they would

soon deplete their savings. They also said that they did

not want to be dependent on their husbands financial-

ly and that they needed a paid job to feel fulfilled. A

HK woman reflected on her job search experience,

‘‘It’s a catch-22. I cannot get a job because I don’t

have Canadian experience, and yet I don’t see how I

can possibly get Canadian experience without being

hired in the first place!’’

Another HK woman who was a social worker prior

to entering Canada became self-employed after sev-

eral months of being rejected by employers due to her

lack of ‘‘Canadian experience’’ and her ‘‘foreign’’

degree. She contends that it was a rationale used by

employers to discriminate against internationally

trained immigrant women and men. Pursuing re-

certification involves applying for an evaluation of

her social work credentials, doing course work and

accumulating at least two years of field practice. 6 Few

immigrant women can afford to forgo wage work to

pursue such an expensive and time-consuming pro-

nal Forum 27 (2004) 135–148 141

G. Man / Women’s Studies International Forum 27 (2004) 135–148142

cess. Thus, the accreditation process deters immigrant

women from practicing their professions.

The lack of recognition of immigrants’ previous

credential and work experience is a serious problem

confronting highly educated immigrant women who

are professionals (Raghuram & Kofman, 2002). In

Canada, trades and professions are regulated through

the governing and licensing bodies of professional

associations such as the Royal College of Physicians

and Surgeons, Canadian Council of Professional

Engineers and the Canadian Association of Schools

of Social Work. In turn, each association has its

provincial licensing bodies such as the Ontario

College of Physicians and Surgeons, Professional

Engineers of Ontario (PEO), Ontario College of

Teachers (OCT). Currently, there are about 35 regis-

tered professions in Ontario (Skills for Change,

2001). The re-certification process is often costly

and time consuming. There is a prolonged waiting

period, and information regarding re-certification is

not easily available, and often couched in vague

language. It is difficult for new immigrants to nav-

igate the bureaucratic red tape. 7

It has been argued that professional associations

and licensing bodies function as ‘‘labor market shel-

ters’’ to protect and reduce competition for those

already licensed by placing entry restrictions into

higher-status and better paying occupations and pro-

fessions (Boyd, 2000; Krahn, Derwing, Mulder, &

Wilkinson, 2000). The professional licensing bodies

have complete autonomy in their decision-making

process and are ultimately responsible for determining

the criteria for immigrants’ re-entry into professions.

Since many regulatory bodies have a legislated man-

date for ‘‘protecting the public good’’, they are also in

a position to ‘‘define characteristics of occupational

internal labor markets which create monopolies on

products and/or services by controlling labor supply’’

(Boyd, 2000, p. 4). Issues such as lack of standard

assessment process, lack of knowledge of comparative

education systems and arbitrary decisions without

recourse to an appeal process limit the participation

of immigrants in the labor force (Skills for Change,

1995, p. 27).

7 Interview with Shauna Paull, Coordinator, Immigrating

Women in Science (IWIS).

Immigrant women who were teachers in Hong

Kong and China, in particular, found that their teach-

ing experience and qualifications from their home

countries are not recognized in Canada. In some cases,

re-certification meant having to go through a mini-

mum of one or two years of retraining. In other cases,

they have to go through undergraduate education

again in order to be accepted into Teacher’s college.

One HK woman explained why she has decided

against retraining:

I worked as an elementary teacher in Hong Kong

for 30 years. The certification system there is

different. I got my teaching certificate from the

teachers’ college in Hong Kong, that’s it. Here, I

have to be recertified again. . . At my age, I don’t thinkI cangothroughanother few yearsof schooling

and still have no guarantee of getting a job later.

Since many of the Mainland women needed to

make a living right away, they recognized the neces-

sity of acquiring ‘‘Canadian experience’’, and took

whatever jobs they were able to find. The economic

downturn in Canada in recent years means that new

immigrants looking for work found jobs in low-pay,

entry level positions, which do not utilize their skills,

education, or experience. Unfortunately, the women

often found that this first job experience eventually

situated them in the labor market (Ng, 1993). The

long working hours and the demands of their house-

hold responsibilities meant that some women were

unable to retrain or attend English language courses

and so found themselves unable to extricate them-

selves from the menial positions they are ghettoized

into. A Mainland woman who was a teacher in Bei-

jing and who became a hotel cleaner in Canada

exemplifies their experiences:

The first job I had was babysitting, that was 1

month after I arrived. I found this job from a

newspaper. My husband helped me prepare the

interview. At that time, I knew very little English,

but the woman hired me because she thought I

have a good heart and would be kind to her

children. I was very happy to get this job. . . I worked there for over 1 year. I have very good

relationship with that family. Now I work in a hotel

G. Man / Women’s Studies International Forum 27 (2004) 135–148 143

as a cleaner, full-time. It’s hard work. My English

is not good, I want to improve it, so I attended

English classes in the evening at first while I was

working during the day. But I couldn’t keep doing

so as I felt too tired. I couldn’t concentrate on my

study, so I have to give it up.

Feminist activists have protested against gendered

policies, which discriminate against immigrant wom-

en’s to opportunities in learn English. Prior to 1974,

Employment and Immigration Canada offered a full-

time language-training program known as the Nation-

al Language Training Program (NLTP). It provided

language training with a living allowance (a subsidy)

to immigrants who were ‘‘heads of households’’, who

are typically immigrant men (Arat-Koc, 1999; Boyd,

1992). Immigrant women were not eligible for it, nor

could they afford to forgo wage work in order to learn

English. After 1974, the NLTP program was desig-

nated for those ‘‘destined for the labor market’’. Since

immigrant women typically came in as dependents of

their husbands they were therefore not considered as

‘‘destined for the labor market’’ and so deemed

ineligible for the language course. Furthermore, due

to racial discriminatory practices, immigrants of color

were often placed in part-time programs in commu-

nity centers and local schools, while Northern Euro-

peans were over-represented in NLTP at community

colleges (Doherty, 1992).

In 1992, two programs were introduced to replace

the NLTP. These are: Language Instruction for New-

comers to Canada (LINC) to provide basic commu-

nication skills; and Labor Market Language Training

(LMLT) for advanced language training targeting

those whose labor market skills are in demand.

Unfortunately, to reduce cost, the state also eliminated

the living allowance and restricted both programs to

new immigrants who have been in Canada for less

than a year. The elimination of a living allowance

discriminates against the most disadvantaged immi-

grants who cannot afford to forgo wage work to attend

language classes full-time. It is in this way that race,

gender and class inequalities in Canadian society are

reproduced and perpetuated.

In recent years, as a cost saving measure, LMLT,

together with two other employment insurance (EI)

programs (Severely Employment Disadvantaged

(SED) and Project Based Training (PBT)) that drew

heavily on an immigrant clientele has also been

eliminated. Daycare support too has been cut so that

now a mother of two children is excluded from

training because the childcare costs are deemed to

be too expensive. Therefore, eligibility for training

support is no longer universally accessible. Only those

individuals who qualify for EI benefits are now

granted access to EI funded training programs. Many

immigrants and refugees who were not able to obtain

a long-term appointment to fulfil the employment

insurance requirements are consequently automatical-

ly excluded (Whittleton, 1999, pp. 3–4).

Without appropriate language training support, the

Chinese immigrant women felt that their inadequate

command of the English language specific to their

professions (e.g. in engineering, accounting, medi-

cine, etc.) posed a barrier to employment. At the same

time, most of the women found the Language Instruc-

tion for Newcomers (LINC) programme too elemen-

tary, as it did not help them in gaining the vocabulary

they needed in finding employment commensurate

with their qualifications.

As a result of all these factors there is a high level

of unemployment or underemployment amongst Chi-

nese immigrant women (see e.g. Man, 1997, 2002;

Preston & Man, 1999). When they do find employ-

ment, they are often overqualified. Even though some

of the women did find employment, the poor condi-

tion of the work environment, the discriminatory

practices, the irregular hours and the unstable and

insecure nature of the work makes it difficult for them

to retain the job. The jobs they find are predominantly

in the retail and service sector, in the restaurant,

retailing and garment industries. Many can only find

work in the ethnic enclave, in Chinese businesses.

These are part-time, insecure jobs with no benefits.

The women work irregular and shift work, and are

often paid below minimum wage as one Mainland

woman explained:

I found a job through a job agency in 2 months, that

was a confectionery factory. The first day I worked

there from 12 midnight till morning. The factory

did not have good hygiene, it was dirty. My

impression of it was bad. The supervisor was not

friendly to us at all. I worked only 1 day, and was

asked to pay a $20 union fee, which was supposed

to be a monthly fee. But we worked only one day,

G. Man / Women’s Studies International Forum 27 (2004) 135–148144

then they didn’t call me back to work. One week

later, they called me back to work, and asked me to

pay another $20 union fee. It was not fair. We felt

really discriminated, exploited and bullied. My

language was not good enough to argue with them.

Their attitude towards us was very bad. One of my

Chinese friends worked there for 3 days, and they

only paid her for 2 days. When I deducted the

transportation fees and union fees, I only got a bit

over $20 left for a whole day’s work. They paid us

$7.65/h. I worked for only 2 days, and I didn’t want

to go back there any more. My husband found a job

in a mattress factory, full-time, hard work. He was

paid $9.50/h. You know we have never done this

kind of work when we were in China. Now after

immigration, we became laborers.

Not only was this woman underemployed, she

was unfairly treated and exploited by her employer

and supervisor. The Canadian labor market has been

less than hospitable to workers. In the past, women

have made concrete gains in paid employment

through the union movement. The right to bargain

collectively in large workplaces has made the most

difference in improving wages and working condi-

tions in women’s paid jobs. In fact, unionization has

promoted pay equity for women (Labour Canada,

1992; Luxton & Reiter, 1997). Public sector unions

offer much better protection than their private sector

counterparts on issues such as discrimination, sexual

harassment, health and safety risks and work reas-

signments. However, although unions guarantee

some protection for workers, they can also exclude

the most vulnerable sector of workers—the part-time,

temporary, flexible labor force. First of all, it is more

difficult for these workers to unionize. Besides, the

neoliberal climate of structural adjustment and pri-

vatization has eroded the power of the unions and

women’s participation in it (Luxton & Reiter, 1997).

As the above example shows, the most disadvantaged

are women in contingent, flexible jobs. Without

seniority they feel doubly exploited by having to

pay high union dues, which they cannot afford, and

at the same, not reaping the benefits of union

protection in terms of job security.

The Chinese women’s underemployment and un-

employment in the new country has undermined their

sense of stability and well-being. The difficulties

some of them encountered in communicating in

English also exacerbate their feelings of isolation

and depression. The relative affluence of the HK

women did allow them more choices, affording some

the option of not participating in the paid labor force.

The HK women who experienced underemployment

found it difficult at first. But many endured this with

patience and tenacity, hoping to obtain better positions

in the future. Here, a HK woman told me her

difficulties:

It was difficult for me at first because I had been

working as a bank supervisor in Hong Kong, and

all of a sudden, I was only a teller here. I had to

learn to be supervised by other people and to learn

to take their orders rather than vice versa. I stayed

in that job for over 2 years. It is a lot better now

with this position because I am now working more

independently.

When they were in Hong Kong or in China, the

higher education and professional skills of these

women ensured that they would have secure careers.

For the Mainland women, whether they had worked

for the government or for businesses, they never had

to worry about their livelihood. For the HK women,

the booming economy in the 1980s and 1990s and the

low unemployment rate in Hong Kong relative to that

of Canada meant that they never had to confront

unemployment. Immigration ruptured their careers.

Their immigrant status in Canada meant that they

had to curtail their previous careers, thus transforming

their everyday lives in the new country. Many immi-

grant women were frustrated by the discrepancies in

their expectations and the reality of the harsh life in

Canada. Here’s how one Mainland woman analyzed

her situation. Her analysis echoes other Chinese

immigrant women’s experiences in Canada:

We thought that if the Immigration Department

accepted us as ‘‘other independent’’ [skilled work-

ers] class immigrants, and we got in with high

points because of our profession and education, we

shouldn’t have difficulty in getting jobs. So it’s an

expectation problem.

One woman had to give up her own hope of being

retrained as a teacher in order to support her husband

G. Man / Women’s Studies International Forum 27 (2004) 135–148 145

to be retrained as a physician since his qualification

was not recognized in Canada. Many foreign-trained

immigrant physicians are unable to get a license to

practice even after passing the Medical Council of

Canada evaluation examinations and the College of

Family Physician examinations because they are un-

able to obtain a medical residency position. To be able

to obtain a license to practice, the candidate must

work for at least 2 years in a residency program. As a

result of budgetary constraints and restructuring in the

healthcare system, the provincial governments have

frozen the number of residency positions at teaching

hospitals. Since 1999, the shortage of doctors has

prompted the governments to increase the number of

medical school positions, but there has been no

corresponding increase in the number of residency

positions. Currently, there are as many as 4000

foreign-trained physicians in Ontario who are waiting

to be re-trained and licensed, while there are only 50–

75 spots in specific specialties. Many internationally

trained physicians have had to work in menial posi-

tions to make ends meet as the re-certification process

can take more than ten years (Jimenez, 2003). 8 In

2002, 670 international medical graduates passed the

necessary Canadian exams to qualify for residency,

but only 67 got a place (Bueckert, 2003).

Conclusion

As the processes of globalization, privatization,

transnationalization and deindustrialization deepen,

the Canadian state in an effort to take full advantage

of the fluidity and flexibility of human capital is

launching new initiatives to actively recruit skilled

immigrants to the country. However, neoliberal poli-

cies and practices, mediated by the accreditation

requirements of professional organizations and regu-

latory bodies, labor market conditions, gendered and

racialized discriminatory practices embedded in Ca-

nadian society and women’s responsibilities in the

home intersect in complex ways to marginalize highly

8 Many foreign-trained doctors had to take on menial jobs such

as delivering pizza and working in restaurants in order to make ends

meet. Ontario recently announced a clearing-house program that

would allow international doctors in certain specialties to complete

6-month qualifying rotations in hospitals.

educated and skilled Chinese immigrant women. It is

evident from this research that these women’s lived

experiences are drastically transformed after they

immigrate to Canada. In the labor market, employ-

ment practices which require ‘‘Canadian experience’’,

restrictive professional accreditation processes and the

lack of recognition of immigrant women’s foreign

credentials and work experience disadvantage these

women. As a result, these highly educated, skilled

immigrant professionals have become deskilled work-

ers or are unemployed. The jobs they have obtained

are often low-status, low-paid and part-time positions,

which they may take up in order to meet their

immediate requirements. In the home, the absence of

a support system in the new country, such as members

of the extended family or hired help exacerbates the

workload of these women. The inadequacy of child-

care services and the lack of childcare subsidies,

coupled with the women’s diminished earning power

make it difficult for them to afford daycare services

for their children. Their household and childcare

responsibilities in turn prevented them from engaging

in full-time positions, and in some cases, deterred

them from taking English language classes. Moreover,

existing English classes are often inadequate for

meeting the employment needs of these professional

and highly skilled women. Thus, the ‘‘brain drain’’

from developing countries has become ‘‘deskilled’’

labor in the new country. As one disillusioned woman

from China commented indignantly:

I think Canada needs laborers, but not profes-

sionals. . . Now they use professional people to do menial labor. How do you expect us to function

well psychologically?

The use of immigration policy to meet the Cana-

dian state’s requirement for skilled labor is being

negated through other institutional policies and prac-

tices. Skilled immigrants are being deskilled in Can-

ada and this deskilling is complicated by the

contradictory processes of globalization and economic

restructuring, with its polarizing effects along axis of

gender, race, ethnicity, class and citizenship. For

immigrant women to become equal and active partic-

ipants in Canadian society resources must be made

available to them. This requires changes in state

policies and institutional support for community agen-

G. Man / Women’s Studies International Forum 27 (2004) 135–148146

cies servicing new immigrants. To accomplish this,

the rhetoric of neoliberalism and hegemonic thinking

about the natural and inevitable force of the market

must first be unmasked. With the provision of inclu-

sive programs and policies, Chinese immigrant wom-

en will be able to enjoy equal opportunity and

outcome.

It should be noted that immigrant women are not

merely passive victims of the social, economic and

political processes of Canadian society. Chinese immi-

grant women are utilizing their agency in procuring

assistance from their family networks and demanding

better services from community agencies. They have

voiced their criticism of the Canadian social system and

have refused to take on jobs that underpay and dis-

criminate against them. Skilled professionals have

formed their own professional organizations such as

the Chinese Professional Women of Canada, the Chi-

nese Professionals Association of Canada and Immi-

grant Women in Science. 9 They have joined with other

groups to lobby the government on issues relating to

accreditation, retraining and job related language

courses. Grassroots advocacy organizations such as

the Chinese Canadian National Council and the United

Chinese Community Enrichment Services Society are

active in organizing grassroots activism from below to

effect change. It is hoped that the success of these

immigrant women will reverse the diminishing bud-

getary allocations for programs to support migrant

women and will enable such women to integrate into

an anti-racist and anti-sexist Canadian state.

Acknowledgements

The data for the immigrant women from Mainland

China is from a larger project funded by Citizenship

and Immigration Canada (CIC) and the Ontario

Administration of Settlement and Integration Services

(OASIS) through the South East Asian Services Center.

The author would like to thank the other members of

the research team: Usha George, Ka Tat Tsang and Wei

9 Immigrant Women in Science (IWIS) Project is sponsored by

the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology

(SCWIST). Its mission is to empower and support women in science

since 1981. It creates mentorship programs and workshops for

internationally trained women engineers.

Wei Da for their contribution to the research project and

to Parvati Raghuram for editing the paper.

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