Ethnic groups more likely to Be selfemployed

Statistics show ethnic populations more likely to start own businesses

Canada’s Veterans Affairs Minister found himself in a Twitter imbroglio on the weekend after tweeting that “Immigrants are better at creating new businesses and new jobs than Canadian-born people. Simple.”

The comment, based in part on a 2016 Statistics Canada study and intended to defend programs in Seamus O’Regan’s province of Newfoundland and Labrador designed to retain immigrant entrepreneurs, created a Twitter backlash that forced O’Regan to retract his statement.

“Poor choice of words on my part,” he tweeted on Sunday. “Far better if I’d said that immigrant entrepreneurs ‘hold their own.’ ”

A new analysis of employment statistics from the 2016 Canadian census, however, supports the premise that it is members of ethnic populations, either recently arrived or long-standing residents, who are more likely to start their own businesses.

Respondents to the census who classified their ethnic origins as something other than “Canadian” were far more likely to also register themselves as “self-employed,” considered a leading gauge of entrepreneurism.

Topping the list of those who listed themselves as self-employed in Canada in the 45-to-54-yearold age bracket were Koreans, followed by Israelis, Taiwanese, Iranians and those who identified themselves as Jewish. Also topping the list were Turks, Lebanese, Syrians and Pakistanis.

Close to 30 per cent of Koreans respondents in that age category listed themselves as self-employed, as compared to the national average of 14 per cent. Only 12 per cent of those who marked themselves as Canadian were registered as self-employed.

In Quebec, in the same age category, it was Punjabis, Australians, Iranians, Koreans and Israelis who were most likely to be selfemployed. Czechs, Syrians and Lebanese were also high on the list.

Instead of the so-called Protestant work ethic, “maybe we should be speaking of the Korean work ethic,” said Jack Jedwab, executive vice-president of the Association for Canadian Studies and the Canadian Institute for Identities and Migration, who crunched the Statistics Canada numbers to come up with the figures. The government and organizations like his collect and analyze the data to understand inequities that might exist in Canada’s labour market and to learn about the economic conditions of Canadians.

There are several factors that can lead immigrants or members of certain ethnic groups to be more likely to work for themselves, Jedwab noted.

Often immigrants may have trouble finding work, and decide to start their own small business as a way of putting themselves into the economy. Employment agencies often encourage newcomers to create their own initiatives if they can’t find work. Some communities already have established support networks in Canada, or come with a certain skill set. Koreans, for instance, often have experience operating local retail businesses, Jedwab noted. Filipinos, on the other hand, have long entered into caregiving services in Canada, and thus rank low on the self-employment scale.

Other groups, like those from the Jewish community, were historically excluded from entering into various professions, and thus moved toward self-employment in order to survive, Jedwab said.

What the figures also indicate is that the concept of the “Protestant work ethic,” first put forth in 1905 by sociologist Max Weber to suggest the religion’s emphasis on hard work led to the capitalist system and British colonial dominance, is being sorely tested in Canada’s new multi-cultural age, where more than 300 ethnic groups reside.

“The Protestant work ethic remains a popular concept in much of Canada, but that sort of concept is very challenged by our multiethnic reality,” Jedwab noted, adding that the idea has long been disputed by academics. “It sort of renders the Protestant work ethic out of date.”

Jedwab cautioned that the study of global entrepreneurship is not a perfect science, and just because someone is self-employed does not mean they will have a better economic performance than an employee.

For the Statistics Canada study O’Regan referenced in his initial tweet, he noted later that “the difference is often close and circumstantial.” That study, CBC News reported, found that by the time they had been here nine years, about 5.3 per cent of immigrants owned a company, as compared to the Canadian-born population, where the rate is 4.8 per cent. The study also found that private firms owned by immigrants tended to be smaller than those owned by their Canadian-born entrepreneurs.