The Contemporary Labor Market Integration of Vietnamese Refugees in Canada

Decades after the arrival of the Vietnamese boat people (1979-1981), we reassess their economic integration, along with that of a second wave (1982-1990). We compare current occupational locations and weekly earnings across the two waves and between the Vietnamese and immigrants born in China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and North and West Europe (arriving 1979-1990). Occupational and earnings profiles document that the second Vietnamese wave has done less well than the first. Birthplace differences in demographic characteristics and educational attainments help explain labor market inequalities between the two waves and between the Vietnamese and other groups.Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2021.1957190 .