Thank you very much, Joy. I would also like to say thanks to members of the committee for granting us the opportunity to be here with you.
I am here representing the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants. This is an agency that is province-wide and is located in Toronto. I am here today to share our views regarding economic security for older immigrant and refugee women in Canada. But before I do that, I will tell you just briefly about OCASI.
OCASI came into existence in 1978 when there was a realization that immigrants were coming to this country and needed services, and so a couple of agencies got together and formed what is known today as OCASI.
OCASI has a membership of over 180 autonomous organizations across Ontario. Its mission is to ensure equal opportunities, to ensure that immigrants can achieve equality, access, and full participation in this Canadian society. The membership of OCASI provides a variety of services to immigrants and refugees who come into Ontario.
We have been asked, as you know, to speak to you about the economic security of immigrant and refugee seniors. But before we can get into that, I need to give you a broad portrait of the situation of older immigrant and refugee women in Canada. I need to do that in order to build a context regarding economic security.
First, I'll touch briefly on the immigration policy and the constraints of that particular policy.
I think all of us know that in Canada we have an aging population. It includes not only “Canadians”, but also the immigrant population, and particularly immigrant women. In 2004 we were told that more than half of the population in Canada 65 years and over were women. Of that group, 19% are foreign-born women included in the number. We know that in Canada women make up more than 50% of the population. Immigration has helped to strengthen the growth of population in Canada over the last little while.
Statistics Canada reported that one-third of immigrant women are between 45 and 65 years of age. Women who were born outside of the country are more likely than other women to be seniors. In 2001, 20% of all immigrant women were 65 years and over, compared with 12% of Canadian-born women.
Therefore, we have a growing and an aging population among immigrant women in this country. I will give you a bit more statistics. Figures show 14% of the female population are from racialized communities and live largely in Toronto and Vancouver, and I think that is no surprise to you. Most racialized women in Canada are foreign-born, and the largest share is of recent arrivals to Canada. What we have observed is that 55% of all seniors are racialized women.
Two per cent of foreign-born women cannot speak either English or French, and this is disproportionate to our men. They are mostly seniors, of whom 18% of those born outside the country cannot speak English or French. Most of these women came to Canada as sponsored immigrants or were dependants sponsored by their husbands. This, we know, is the experience of about 72% of immigrant women.
What we are seeing in our country today is that the current immigration legislation and policy, specifically the point system as applied to independent immigrants, privileges immigrants with post-secondary education and work experience in their fields. Given global conditions of inequality, many women have limited access to post-secondary education and the opportunity to work in their fields.
Because of this inequality, these individuals are very dependent upon their spouses, and because of this we have had situations where women, when problems occur in the family, cannot do anything for themselves because they have always been dependent on their partners.
I can cite just quickly an example of one woman who had lived with her husband for the last 25 or 30 years and who then, when she was asked to leave the home, did not even know how to go to the bank. She did not know how to write a cheque because she had never done that at all throughout her life.
The Canadian Council for Refugees, of which OCASI is a member, has on several occasions asked the Department of Citizenship and Immigration to address this inequality, but what we've seen is that nothing has changed. What we have is a growing population of immigrant women and racialized women who are experiencing poverty. Hence we call it the racialization of poverty.
We know when we look at immigration trends that a number of immigrants are arriving from areas like Asia, the Middle East, African countries, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. This has meant an increase in the number of racialized immigrants coming into Canada, with most of these coming from China. Over the last 10 years, that number has grown significantly. About half the female Canadian population, or approximately 49% of all immigrant women, are from racialized communities.
According to the 2001 census, the average income in Ontario was $35,185, the median being $28,027, indicating that the majority of Ontario residents were receiving less than the average income for the province. In contrast, the average income for immigrants who had arrived in Canada between 1995 and 1999 was $29,398, while the median was $20,006. The average income for Ontario residents from racialized communities was $28,978 and the median was $23,990. This shows you what is happening to racialized immigrant women in this country. What we see is that women are living in poverty, and this is of great concern to us as an organization.
We ask ourselves what has changed. A number of reports have been written on this particular subject matter. I cite two of them. One is Canada's Economic Apartheid: the Social Exclusion of Racialized Groups in the New Century, which was written by Grace-Edward Galabuzi. Another one came from the Canadian Council on Social Development: Nowhere to Turn?, written by Dr. Ekuwa Smith. These reports have looked at the racialization of poverty of immigrant women in Canada.
We know that systemic racism, discrimination, and inequality, especially in the labour market, continue be contributing factors to poverty among immigrant women in this country. Therefore, we think something needs to be done. It is true that there's not much out there on the issue surrounding senior immigrant women, and therefore we think some piece of research needs to be targeted specifically at that particular group. What we know is that recent immigrants to Canada are more likely to be employed in contingent types of work or non-standard types of work, or piece work, or temporary work, or contract work, or seasonal work. What we also know is that women from racialized communities are relatively well educated compared to others, yet we find them in low-paid jobs in our community.
Women from racialized communities earn less and have comparatively low incomes. This is consistent with the experience of all racialized residents in Canada. Four per cent of women over 65 had paying jobs. Many have never been employed, but we believe that this will change because we have a growing population and at the same time, an aging population and some--the young women--are finding employment. Therefore, we're hoping that later on their situation will not be as bad as it is for the current seniors.
When we look at what is happening in our labour market, more and more immigrant women, as I said earlier, are becoming poorer. The National Advisory Council on Aging, in its report Aging in Poverty in Canada, written in October 2005, reports that almost half of all immigrants aged 45 to 59 who arrived in Canada after 1980 said they feel they're ill-prepared for retirement. Forty-seven per cent of those do not know when they will be able to retire or do not intend to retire at all.
Generally, recently arrived old immigrants find it more difficult to enter the labour market compared to previous immigrants.