The impact of educational titles on employment among visible minorities : A comparison between Quebec and Ontario
Many studies point to the presence of ethnic discrimination of visible minorities in Canada. They have shown that minorities with high levels of qualification hold jobs that receive less recognition and lower incomes than other Canadians. However, few studies are interested in ethnic discrimination from the angle of the relationship between the job and the level of qualification. This article examines, using data from Statistics Canada’s national survey of university graduates from the year 2000, this question among visible minorities who hold university degrees obtained in Canada, and compares the situations of respondents residing in Quebec to those from Ontario. According to the results, assuming equivalent levels of schooling, members from visible minorities are more likely than others to hold jobs for which they are over-qualified. However, this finding varies depending on the province of residence and the minority group in question. These results call on us to question, at least in part, the human capital theory and to consider other theories, in particular social capital theories and discrimination theories for their interpretation.