Study: Canadian Employers Prefer Job Seekers with English-Sounding Names

By Eddy Lok

TORONTO, 29 OCTOBER, 2011: Thousands of recent immigrants to Canada are struggling in the job market, facing significant discrimination from job recruiters and employers who prefer English-sounding names when it comes to calling applicants for an interview, according to a study.

Applications with an English or Canadian name received callbacks 40 per cent more often than applicants with Chinese, Indian or Pakistani names even though they have considerable amount of experience and the right qualifications, the study says.

Researchers Professor Philip Oreopoulos and Professor Diane Dechief of the University of Toronto, who co-authored "Why do employers discriminate against immigrant job applicants?" said non-English names often draw stereotypes.

Citing new evidence from major Canadian cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, they said: "One of the most striking results from this work is the substantial difference in callback rates as a result of simply changing an applicants name."

Unemployment rates of immigrants compared to similarly-aged native-born workers are almost twice as high and median wages of recent immigrant workers are also about 49 per cent lower compared to native-born workers.

The study, which was a follow-up of an earlier work which involved sending out thousands of resumes in response to online job postings to investigate why Canadian immigrants faced hurdles in job searches, focused more on understanding why discrimination occurred and whether it could be attributed to concerns about worker productivity or simply prejudice.

Canada, with a population of over 30 million, enjoys a solid reputation of being welcoming and magnanimous to newcomers, and compassionate with refugees, but such generosity does not necessarily reflect in the employment situation which is crucial to the success of immigrants.

So, if your name is a Something Singh and if you are applying ! for a jo b in Canada expect fewer callbacks than, say, John Matthews or Peter Something. Oreopoulos said that on average, job recruiters and human resource personnel in Toronto and Montreal were 45 per cent more likely to call Alice Johnson or Wendy Henderson over Min Liu.

Justified or unjustified fears that people with non-English names would have language troubles and workplace difficulties led recruiters to call Carrie over Loo or Yang, for instance.

People with Greek names are also unlikely to receive callbacks that much, an indication that employers put a premium on Anglo-Saxon names rather than a discount on Chinese names, according to Oreopoulos and Dechief.

Still, other studies have shown that language is a key determinant of an immigrants success in the labour market. In fact, employment rates increase with an immigrants ability to speak and write English or French, the other official language of Canada.

The researchers also said employers often treat a name as a signal that an applicant may lack critical language or social skills for the job.

Masking names when deciding who to interview, while considering better ways to discern foreign language ability, may help improve immigrants chances for labour market success, they said.

Canada has the highest immigration rate per capita in the world roughly 250,000 arrivals a year, the vast majority being from Asia. Last year, a record 280,636 new permanent residents were registered.

At present, about one million applications from around the world seeking permanent residence in Canada, are awaiting approval at a time when the issues of jobs, social services and the merits of countrys multiculturalism within a predominantly White society, are often raised.

Other visible minorities who face problems in the job market are Koreans, Japanese and people of some Middle Eastern countries whose English proficiency is low.

Many Koreans and Iranians tend to o! pen thei r own business like a convenience store, a barber shop or restaurant instead of seeking employment. Others go into real estate on their own terms.

- Bernama