Family Poverty and Intense Work during High School: Do Children of Immigrants Face Unique Challenges?

Lisa Kaida, Memorial University of Newfoundland

While youth employment has attracted scholarly interest, quantitative research on the work experience of low-income students of immigrants is limited. This study assesses the impact of family poverty on the employment prevalence and intense work among children of immigrants in Canada, in comparison to their non-immigrant counterparts. My analysis of data from the Youth in Transition Survey finds children from low income families, especially those with immigrant backgrounds, are less likely to be employed. However, once employed, children of poor immigrants are more likely to work longer hours than their non-poor counterparts, while poverty has no impact on the intense work for the children of non-immigrants. The results quantitatively substantiate the evidence from qualitative research, which finds the unique experiences of working adolescents from economically disadvantaged immigrant families.