Immigrants in the Global Economy

Precarious Employment and the Transnational Dimensions of Economic Incorporation

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Methodology

Our research questions regarding the experience of newcomers in the context of the new economy called for quantitative and qualitative multi-level (individual and household/family), temporally dynamic information about processes and strategies involving several areas of respondents’ lives. We decided to collect original data using a mixed-method survey for two reasons. First, original data were necessary because there were no available data sources with all of the information we sought. Existing secondary sources provided partial information, for example, quantitative data on employment but not immigration, or vice-versa. Nor did these data permit us to conduct analyses at local (neighbourhood) levels of geography and disaggregation. Second, we opted for a mixed-method survey because we wanted systematic data that gave study participants the opportunity to provide narrative accounts of complex decision-making and strategic considerations about issues such as livelihood choices, work-family life balance, intra-family negotiations, multi-sited resource exchanges, and change over time. The final research instrument responds to these conceptual requirements.

Given the absence of existing data sets and the lack of empirical research on the intersections of immigrant employment and precarious work, we wanted to employ a methodology that would address two concerns. One was a concern with collecting data in a rigorous and systematic manner that would permit some degree of generalization. This meant designing as representative a sample as possible. The other was with producing results that would be considered relevant as well as valid to academic and non-academic audiences. Community and policy groups were among our intended audiences from the start. To this end, we consulted with colleagues, community groups and service delivery agencies, and community-based researchers who worked as interviewers.

Constructing a representative sample was more of a challenge, as there was no clear sampling frame. We also found that traditional approaches to random sampling were too costly, ineffective and unreliable. In the end, we developed a multi-step random sampling design to generate a study population of 300 respondents, composed of 150 Latin American and 150 Caribbean immigrant workers living in the GTA. As we screened potential respondents, we took steps to produce a sample that reflects the complexity of recent immigration trends and processes.

 

Challenges of Sampling

There were numerous challenges in capturing a representative sample of two populations defined in terms of region of origin and history. The Latin American and Caribbean communities are geographically dispersed throughout the city of Toronto. As a result, the first challenge was to develop strategies to find participants. The effective use of secondary data sources to produce a sample for this project posed several challenges. One stems from the relatively small size of the Latin American community in Toronto. The size means that the levels of aggregation presented in census and similar data for groups with small populations are not useful. Privacy issues and rules regarding data suppression mean that for small populations, data are not disaggregated enough at the appropriate level of geography. Second, the recent immigration of Argentineans, Mexicans and Colombians meant that existing secondary data would under-represent these national origin groups. Third, available secondary data would not allow us to easily use ethno-racial categories to stratify the sample, e.g. based on indigenous/mestizo identity, or Afro- versus Indo-Caribbean self-identification.

We initially considered using a two-stage sampling design beginning with (1) a short telephone survey followed by (2) the selection of a specialized sub-sample drawn from the larger tele-survey. Prospective respondents would be found through phone book listings and geographic searches in areas with high densities of Latin American and Caribbean born residents. In a third stage, in-depth interviews were to be conducted with respondents with various types of precarious employment. A review of the secondary literature and key informant interviews confirmed the pitfalls of this strategy. First, Toronto residential settlement patterns are quite dispersed and dynamic; groups do not concentrate in large enclaves and social mobility -either upwards or downwards-is associated with geographic mobility. Last name listings would have been useful for Spanish speakers, but not for English speaking Caribbean people who often have Indian or African backgrounds or Anglo-English names. These complications made the cost of tele-surveys exorbitant and would have produced an unrepresentative sample. Second, research on vulnerable populations who experience various forms of legal-institutional limbo (e.g. undocumented migrants, day labourers, sex workers, the homeless, etcetera) highlights the importance of using innovative identification and sampling strategies. For instance, in our research it became clear that a high proportion of immigrants with precarious employment situations communicate via cellular phones, which are not listed and hence not available for directory-based sampling and a tele-survey. The need to reach out to such diverse communities with regard to a topic that implies vulnerability, such as precarious employment, called for a variety of creative strategies to reach out to the different members of these communities in order to create a balanced sample.

 

The Filter

In order to ensure that respondents could provide information on employment, and had arrived in Canada in a time frame that fit our interest in analyzing immigrant employment in the context of the economic and labour market restructuring associated with the new economy, we established the following necessary requirements for potential respondents:

The project coordinator carefully screened potential respondents before putting them in touch with interviewers.

We wanted to investigate the distribution of precarious work wherever it was found, and the variables associated with it. We did not establish requirements regarding occupation, sector or terms of employment, as we did not want to sample for precarious work, or for specific occupations or sectors. At the same time, we took steps to limit the over-representation of any particular occupation or sector. We also made clear in our communications that participation in the project was possible regardless of immigration status.

 

Sampling Strategies

The collaboration of many institutions, businesses, churches, unions, media and community organizations was vital to the successful implementation of this project. Members of these groups and organizations collaborated in the process of recruiting participants, provided information on key Latin America and Caribbean areas of concentration, events and media; facilitated the process of setting up information tables; allowed us to participate in radio programs; published information in local newspapers and invited us to several meetings. With their support, we found spaces were Latin American and Caribbean people congregate, both physically and virtually. We generated spots in ethno-specific radio stations; opened booths to invite participation in shopping centres in several areas with a high density of Latin American and Caribbean residents and attended locations where these populations gather to find work.

 

The Sample

A group of 18 students and community workers initiated the process of recruiting project participants during the summer of 2006. At the end of December 2006 they completed 300 interviews, half with Latin Americans and half with people from English-speaking Caribbean countries and Guyana. The distribution was as follows:

Caribbean Sample

Country

Male

Female

Total

Jamaica

29

40

69

Trinidad

6

13

19

St Lucia

0

5

5

Guyana

13

12

25

Dominica

3

1

4

St. Vincent

3

13

16

Antigua

1

3

4

Barbados

2

2

4

Grenada

0

4

4

Bahamas

1

1

2

Total

58

94

152

Latin American Sample

Country

Male

Female

Total

Colombia

17

11

28

Mexico

16

22

38

Argentina

6

9

15

Chile

4

5

9

Uruguay

2

3

5

Costa Rica

6

0

6

El Salvador

4

2

6

Cuba

5

6

10

Venezuela

5

3

8

Ecuador

4

1

5

Peru

4

9

13

Nicaragua

1

1

2

Guatemala

0

1

1

Panama

1

0

1

Dominican Republic

2

1

3

Total

76

74

150

We made every effort to assure the sample was representative of the Latin American and Caribbean communities in Toronto, as well as balanced in terms of gender, national origin and occupation. “Balance” was based on trying to keep the sample in line with available census data for immigrants from the Caribbean and Latin America, at the regional level of aggregation.

 

This project is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).