On January 9th, the Canadian Race Relations Foundation will release Unequal Access: A Canadian Profile of Racial Differences in Education, Employment, and Income, a "report card" on racism in Canada. The report, written by Jean Lock Kunz, Anne Milan, and Sylvain Schetagne of the CCSD, shows that good jobs and promotions elude many visible minority and Aboriginal men and women in Canada. The report uses the most recent statistics available, primarily data from the 1996 Census and from focus group discussions held with visible minority and Aboriginal men and women in five cities across Canada. Here are some of the highlights of the research.

Aboriginals still have low educational attainment

• The high school non-completion rate is highest among Aboriginal youth, compared to rates among visible minority youth and young people who are neither visible minority nor Aboriginal (non-racialized youth). Aboriginal youth also lagged far behind in their rates of university completion.

• Even with post-secondary education, job opportunities may still be out of reach for Aboriginal peoples. As one Aboriginal participant commented: "When I send out my résumé and I'm totally qualified for the position, they'll look at the courses I've taken (First Nations resources). Maybe that's why I don't get the job."

Immigrants have difficulties with credential recognition

• Despite their higher educational attainment compared to non-racialized groups, visible minorities trail behind in terms of their employment and income.

• For recent immigrants, the challenge is to have their credentials recognized. As one focus group participant said: "I have a university degree from Algeria, where there is no CEGEP. When I came to Canada, they subtracted three years from my educational attainment in order to compensate. This makes no sense."

• Foreign-born visible minorities experience greater discrepancies between their education levels and their occupations, compared to other groups. Less than half of foreign-born visible minorities who have a university education work in jobs with a high skill level.

Good jobs are elusive to minorities

• In times of economic prosperity, it is not as difficult to find a job, but for men and women who are members of minority groups, it is still difficult to find jobs that match their qualifications.

• There was consensus among focus group participants that some groups of people in Canada have more difficulty than others in finding employment. These include Aboriginals, members of visible minority groups, recent immigrants to Canada, young people, and seniors. Employment rates for these groups are lower in all regions of Canada.



• Visible minority men and women still face "polite" racism when job hunting. One focus group participant said: "I've called about jobs and had people say 'come down for an interview,' yet when I get there, I get the feeling they are surprised to see that I'm black because I sound like the average guy on the telephone. They've said 'Oh, the job has just been filled,' or during the interview they'll say that I'm overqualified or ask me questions like 'Are you sure you want to work at this type of job?' "

• Even when members of minority groups gain access to the labour market, they still have difficulties advancing in their position. As illustrated by one focus group participant: "I had applied for a promotion, but I didn't get the job. A guy that I had trained (who is white) got the promotion instead."

• Compared to non-racialized groups, members of visible minority groups and Aboriginal people with a university education are less likely to hold managerial or professional jobs. For those who do obtain managerial jobs, more than half are self-employed, compared to only one-third among non-racialized groups.

Higher education yields fewer payoffs for minorities

• Aboriginal peoples and foreign-born visible minorities are over-represented in the bottom quintile (or bottom 20%) of the income scale. Even when they have a university education, they are still less likely than non-racialized groups to have incomes in the top 20% of the income scale.

• Data on earnings revealed that foreign-born visible minorities aged 35 to 44 earned, on average, only 78.5% of what Canadian-born non-racialized groups earned. In other words, they earned about 79¢ for every dollar earned by a Canadian-born non-racialized person.

Racism is more covert today

• Focus group participants said that racism is a "hidden thing" in the workplace, and many were convinced that they had been victims of subtle forms of racism. Examples of this subtle discrimination included being passed over for promotion, assigned unpleasant tasks, being stereotyped, and being excluded from the "inner circle" of the workplace.
• According to some focus group participants, the higher up the organizational ladder you look, the lighter the skin colour. "I look around and think - there's no chance of getting ahead. Of all the people in senior positions, no one is from an ethnic group." This observation was echoed by several participants.

The road ahead

• Most focus group participants hoped that their children would have a better future than they themselves anticipate having.

• Employment equity legislation has been more effective in recruiting racialized minorities than in their retention and promotion. Legislation may alter the behaviour of employers, but it has less impact on the workplace culture and individual attitudes.

• Public education is critical in raising awareness of racial inequality in order to eliminate it in the future.

Copies of the report, Unequal Access, can be obtained by contacting the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, 4576 Yonge Street, Suite 701, Toronto, ON M2N 6N4. Tel.: (416) 952-3501; fax: 952-3326; Internet: www.crr.ca

Canadian Council on Social Development, 190 O'Connor Street, Suite 100, Ottawa, Ontario, K2P 2R3