Family structure and Immigrant Women's Labour Force Participation

This paper examines the relationship between family structure (indicated by presence of partner, young child, and another adult) and labour force participation of immigrant women. Immigrant women have lower labour force participation rates than Canadian-born women. Presence of partner, young child, and another adult are each associated with lower labour force participation for all women, with young child showing the largest association. Multivariate analyses confirm the negative effect of each indicator of family structure and the lower participation of immigrant women compared to Canadian-born women, with some exceptions. Family structure effects differ for partnered and non-partnered women, particularly the diminished effect of presence of young child on non-partnered women’s labour force participation. The findings suggest that ways to increase immigrant women’s labour force participation are mostly similar to those for increasing women’s labour force participation in general, including increasing educational attainment and providing childcare facilities for women with young children. Because most immigrant women are still less likely to be in the labour force, more research is needed on factors associated with immigrant ethnic groups that may discourage women’s labour force participation.