The Effect of Job Characteristics on the Self-Rated Health of Immigrants to Canada

Magali Girard, McGill University
Sean Clouston, McGill University

The objective of this paper is to look at the effect of income and job characteristics as “fundamental causes” of health and to compare those key determinants on immigrants and non-immigrants in Canada. We consider the effects of employment, education and qualifications (including those received prior to migration) and labour outcomes on measures of self-rated health. The data used in this study come from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, a panel study collected yearly by Statistics Canada. We expect that inequalities in health arise from educational differences in the immigrant population, with qualifications received outside of the U.S. or Canada having less impact as they are not recognized in Canada. We also expect to see some nonlinearity in health trajectories as immigrant health slowly merges with Canadian health; however, the degree of such change is expected to vary with employment characteristics and educational qualifications.