Indian Diaspora in Developed Democracies: Comparing Labor Market Outcomes in Canada and in the United States

• In Event: Race, Gender, and Class Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 9) Migration, Citizenship, and Displacement

Abstract

The sustained volumes and the variety in cross-national population movements over almost half a century from the Global South to the Global North have impacted the economic, political and social fabrics of the receiving and of the sending country. There is growing interest in studying outcomes of a single group in multiple destinations in a comparative perspective. Yet, there is none focusing on the entrants from India, what one can call the Indian diaspora. Present study focuses on Indians, in two developed democracies, namely, Canada and the United States (U.S.). Indian diaspora is becoming noticeable outside of India because of its increasing numerical presence and above average socioeconomic status. Given the evidence that economic, political, and social structures impact quantity and quality of immigrating population and the level of their attainments after entry, Canada and the U.S. provide interesting case studies. While both Canada and the U.S. are known because of their policies and dependence on immigrants are known as classical immigration countries, ‘contexts of reception’ as reflected by their economic and social welfare programs and immigration policies vary notably. Conceptually, ‘contexts of reception’ provides a suitable framework as its basic premise is that if economic, political and social conditions differ across receiving countries, attainments of individuals emigrating from the same country are expected to vary. For instance, countries with relatively few regulations tend to be more competitive and exhibit less discrimination The central research question is to what extent similarities and differences in labor market outcomes of employment, and earnings experienced by immigrants from India across two destination countries can be explained by measurable indicators like education, duration, demographic indicators and the immigration policies. Empirical analyses draw upon the most recent rounds of the microdata, 2021 Canadian Census data and 2021-2024 1% pooled samples of the American Community Survey.

Author

• Veena S. Kulkarni, Arkansas State University-Main Campus