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Project Lead

Xingfei Liu

Team Members

Tony Fang, Arthur Sweetman, Husame Doganay, Saba Ranjbar

Cluster: Interrogating Immigrant Un(der)employment: Causes, Consequences and Solutions

Understanding the human capital nature of female immigrant earnings growth is key to informing policy makers with advice about both immigration and labor market policy.

This project will focus on gender differences and provide updated empirical evidence on immigrants’ earnings assimilation over time with a non-parametric approach and current immigrant data. This project further investigates the theoretical mechanisms that drive Canadian women immigrants’ earning growth dynamics by exploring suitable human capital theory to explain the empirical findings.

1. What can we learn by studying the earnings of immigrant men and women both separately and comparatively?
2. What is the most suitable human capital investment theory that can explain the earning trends for men and women separately? 
3. What can we learn about immigration policy and economic condition differences faced by immigrant men and women in Canada compared to the United States?

This project will start by using a non-parametric quantitative approach to study immigrant earnings trajectories relative to native Canadians and relative to immigrants. Gender differences will be explored through an innovative approach.

The project is currently in progress. Preliminary findings are being presented in conferences and multiple publications are progressing. 

Expected completion date: September 2026

Past events and conferences: 

• "Earnings Assimilation in Canada (2006-2021): A Seemingly Unrelated Regression Approach" presented by Xingfei Liu at Western Economic Association International (WEAI) 18th International Conference, April 1, 2026
• "Wage Assimilation of Immigrants in Canada: 1971-2021" presented by Husame Doganay at Southern Economic Association (SEA) 95th Annual Meeting, November 25, 2025
• "Immigrant Earnings Assimilation in Canada: Cohorts, Inequality, and Sample Selection", presented by Saba Ranjbar at Annual Conference of the Atlantic Canada Economics Association (ACEA 2025), October 19, 2025
• "Immigrant Earnings Assimilation in Canada, 1971–2021: Cohort Dynamics, Sample Selection, and the Median–Mean Divide", presented by Xingfei Liu at 14th International Symposium of Quantitative Economics on July 10, 2025
• “Earnings assimilation of immigrants in Canada: 1971–2021", presented by Xingfei Liu, AI, Remote Work, and Productivity – An International Conference, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Canada, May 2025
• "The earnings of immigrants in Canada: The role of gender and the form of employment – An updated picture with the most recent cohorts", presented by Saba Ranjbar, Canadian Economic Association Conference (CEA), Montreal, Canada, May 2025

Gender differences; human capital; immigrant earnings; immigrant women; wage gap