Ethnic Identity and the Labour Market

We examine the consequences of ethnic identity on getting a job. We define ethnic identity as the attachment to the group who shares one’s ancestral heritage, and use a direct measure of the depth of ethnic identity based on a survey question which asks “is your ethnic origin very important to you, somewhat important, not very important or not at all important”. This measure is used to explore how ethnic identity affects two labour market processes often presumed to depend on it: the use of informal networks to find jobs, and the quality of jobs found. We find that for European ethnic minorities, the depth of ethnic identity is positively correlated with the propensity to use informal methods to find jobs. This is consistent with ethnic identity playing a role in ethnically based job-finding networks. We find also that for visible minority men, ethnic identity is correlated with much lower occupational prestige. This is consistent with ethnic identity being correlated with behaviour that serves to separate ethnic minorities from majority populations. 1 Corresponding author: Krishna Pendakur, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University, [email protected]; and Ravi Pendakur, Strategic Directions Branch, Social Development Canada. Krishna Pendakur acknowledges the financial support of the Center for Excellence on Research on Immigration and Integration in the Metropolis and of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. The authors wish to acknowledge the intellectual support of our colleagues on this work: George Akerlof, Edward Glaeser, Rachel Kranton, Brian Krauth, Ted Miguel, Clyde Reed and Dick Stanley. Ethnic Identity and the Labour Market 2