Carlito Pablo photo.
UBC historian Henry Yu says it will take more than politeness to address the injustices of discrimination.
March 20, 2008
Exposing economic racism
From individuals to community groups to various levels of government, Canadians take antiracism seriously as both a mandate and a cause, according to historian Henry Yu.
However, people generally think of antiracism as merely a matter of proper behaviour toward others who may not look or speak the same way they do, says Yu, who is an associate professor of history at UBC.
“We have to expand our notion of what racism is in some sense to go beyond just sort of, ‘Do I call you a name or say something about the way you look or the colour of your skin? For as long as I don’t do that, I’m not a racist,’ ” Yu told the Georgia Straight in advance of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Friday (March 21). “Well, we need to look at other forms of exploitation, exclusion, and marginalization.”
As a resident of the working-class Vancouver neighbourhood of Mount Pleasant, Yu regularly comes across people of various immigrant backgrounds who work multiple low-paying jobs to support themselves and their families. This, according to Yu, is the real and “insidious” face of racism that should outrage Canadians.
“The connection between racism and exploitation, in terms of economic exploitation and powerlessness, has always been the case that there has never been a moment when racial hierarchies have not facilitated or legitimated or covered up this exploitation,” Yu said in conversation during a recent conference on Asian migration organized by UBC’s Green College and St. John’s College.
Yu said that politeness isn’t enough if Canadian society as a whole wants to change the situation of migrants and people of colour generally being relegated to the bottom of the labour market.
Perceptions of discrimination among Canadians
> Nearly one in four Canadians feels their rights are violated “sometimes”.
> Men are twice as likely as women to feel their rights have been violated based on race, ethnicity, or colour.
> Thirteen percent of Ontarians, nine percent of Prairie residents, and eight percent of British Columbians feel their rights have been violated based on race, ethnicity, or colour.
> People from Alberta, Quebec, and the Atlantic provinces are the least likely
to feel this way.
> Ten percent of Vancouverites feel their rights have been violated based on race, ethnicity, or colour.
> Respondents from Toronto were far more likely to say they belong to an ethnic or racial minority group than those from Vancouver or Montreal.
> Those who identified as ethnic or racial minorities were almost twice as likely as the general population to say employers or potential employers had violated their rights.
Sources: Canadian Race Relations Foundation, Association for Canadian Studies
A number of studies by Statistics Canada show that workers of migrant origin earn less than their Canadian-born counterparts. A StatsCan study released in October 2007 indicates that even the children of immigrants, the so-called second generation—
particularly men—face challenges. The paper by researcher Boris Palameta, entitled “Economic Integration of Immigrants’ Children”, noted that some census data “suggest that earnings returns to education among 25- to 37-year-old Canadian men with immigrant parents vary by parental region of origin”.
The paper states that males whose parents came from Eastern and Southern Europe earned eight percent less than those with parents from traditional immigration source countries in North America, and Northern and Western Europe, even though they had the same level of education. Men with immigrant parents from the Caribbean, the Pacific, and Central and South America earned 28 percent less.
“Furthermore, those with parents from Africa or Asia also earned 8% less than those with parents from traditional source countries, despite having nearly twice the rate of university graduation,” Palameta’s paper said.
Lindsay Marsh is coordinator of the Vancouver-based Affiliation of Multicultural Societies and Service Agencies of B.C.’s Safe Harbour program. The provincial-government-funded program trains people who work in stores, offices, and other publicly accessible areas to provide a safe place for those who feel they have not been treated properly or have been denied services that are normally available to others.
These places sport a window decal bearing four people holding hands in a circle, a sign that these spots are a welcoming place for people who may just want to talk to someone, use the phone, or have a glass of water.
The Safe Harbour program is present in 21 communities across the province, with some 350 participating stores and offices, Marsh told the Straight.
“Safe Harbour is trying to break down the barriers, and help people understand what is diversity,” Marsh said. She cited a study released on December 10, 2007, by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and the Association for Canadian Studies, stressing that a lot more needs to be done in educating the public about racism.
The study analyzes a survey, conducted by Decima Research for the Department of Canadian Heritage, that found that nearly one in four Canadians feel that their rights have been violated, and that “discrimination based on race, ethnicity or skin colour” is one of the three most common sources of this infringement.
“Those identifying with ethnic and racial groups were also more likely to say that police (8%) and school personnel (5%) were more likely to have violated their rights than did the population on the whole,” the study said.
For this story, the Straight asked Vancouver locals, besides slurs and name-calling, how does racism manifest itself in society today?
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Yet, Pablo makes no special note of Canada’s most disadvantaged group: First Nation’s Peoples. According to a recent Vancouver Sun article there are approximately 40 thousand First Nation’s people in Vancouver, the third largest urban population in Canada. As well it is a young population, with half of them under the age of 25. Jessica Ball from University of Victoria, states that “when we see this burgeoning population of young people, that’s a resource for our province”. Despite all the hope that the statement connotes, First Nation’s peoples are at the very bottom of this racial economic hierarchy. Aboriginal men and women make 52% and 37% less respectively compared to men and women of British origin, according to a study by Pendakur and Pendakur. This shows an extreme disadvantage for aboriginal people entering the labour market and suggests that there is more to discover about the racism that lurks below the surface of the Canadian labour market.
Unfortunately, according to the Canadian Labour Congress of 2003, one in four Canadian experiences racial discrimination in the workplace. This statistic is staggering and the government finds it worrisome, since visible minority populations of Vancouver and Toronto are expected to double by 2016 and the urban First Nation’s population is also growing rapidly. Canada’s economy can no longer afford to be racist. We need to acknowledge the issues beyond social multiculturalism and commit to economic multiculturalism, or else we will have a divisive society where exploitation, marginalization, and exclusion will forever be racial.
Yet on a more positive note, Krishna Pendakur, a professor studying wage discrimination at Simon Fraser University, says “I kind of think that Vancouver and Toronto are these crucibles, in which we can potentially learn about what the future is going to look like. It seems to me that the indicators are kind of good. Among Canadian cities the disparity faced by visible minority workers is relatively small in Vancouver.” Perhaps he is right, Vancouver and Toronto may continue to bridge the gap between ethic groups leading the way for the rest of Canada, hopefully First Nation’s people will be included in this improvement. Nevertheless, Carlito Pablo is right, it is important that we all recognize the racial hierarchies in the labour market in Canada and attempt to understand the complex story they tell.