Evidence from Canada contradicts the common notion that migrant women are secondary workers

It is a common assumption that most migrant women only enter the workforce as so-called ‘secondary workers’, supplementing the income of their husbands for a relatively short amount of time. Using data from more than 800,000 women in Canada from 1991 to 2006, Alícia Adserà and Ana Ferrer find that in their workforce participation, married women immigrants tend to fit the profile of married native women and that they experience rising wages and an increase in the amount of analytical skills needed for their work over time. They write while immigrant women experience barriers to entry into skilled occupations, these too ease over time, though not to full wage parity with native women.