Time Use Patterns by Immigration Status in Canada

1. Time Use Patterns by Immigration Status in Canada Mobinul Huq Department of Economics University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A5 CANADA Ph: (306) 966-5204 Email: m.huq@usask.ca

2. Immigration issues: • Projected labour shortage and immigration as a solution. • Assimilation of immigrant population in the host country. Current economic research focus • In terms of labour market outcomes. • Earnings, labour supply, employment/unemployment, market valuation of foreign degree and experience. Non-market activities?

3. Literature on time use pattern: • Comparisons by demographic characteristics (Marshall 2006, Apps and Rees 2005, Stobert et al. 2005) Gender, Age group,.. • Change over time (Fisher et al. 2007) • Cross country comparison (Anxo et al. 2007) Canadian born versus foreign born/immigrants ?

4. Data Source Statistics Canada Time Use survey, 2005 (General Social Survey Cycle 19) Data Selection Age 25 to 54 Omitted: Non-permanent residents, missing information on marital status, education, urban/rural. 4 groups by gender and place of birth (Canadian born/foreign).

5. Daily Time use 10 one-digit activities: 96 two-digit activities: 186 three-digit activities: One-digit activities:

6. Domestic work (Variable name DVDOM) includes: 10. Meal preparation 101. Meal preparation 102. Baking, Preserving Food, Home Brewing Etc. 11. Meal cleanup 12. Indoor cleaning 13. Outdoor cleaning 14. Laundry 15. Mending 151. 152. 16. Home Repairs, Maintenance …… (161 to 164) 17. Gardening, Pet Care …… (171 to 173) 18. Other Housework …… (181 to 186) 19. Travel for household work

7. Time use pattern by immigration status • Average time spent by different activities: For example: Average hours of market work by Canadian born (Ci) versus immigrants (Ii) • Participation rate by activities: • Average time spent by participants:

8. Dissimilarity indices compared by Stewart (2006) Szalai Index: Weighted Szalai Index : Absolute Deviation Index: Weighted Absolute Deviation Index: One of the issues with unweighted indices: Sensitivity to short duration activities. Interpretation: Szalai indices have no obvious interpretation: AD: average proportional difference. WAD: The percentage of time that must be reallocated for equality.

9. Weighted Absolute Deviation Index: • Stewart (2006) conclusion: “Given its robustness and its natural interpretation, the weighted absolute-deviation index, TWAD, clearly dominates other indexes considered.” WAD: The proportion of time that must be reallocated for equality. Sum of Absolute Deviation Halved (SADH): SADH: the amount of time that must be reallocated for equality. SADH= WAD*1440 SADH = 15 minutes equivalent to WAD=.01

10. Dissimilarity by level of disaggregation: (2x2 Example) SADH: WAD One-digit: 4 hours/day 0.17 Two-digit 7 hours/day 0.29

11. Required Reallocation Between one digit activities: 4 Additional level two reallocation requirement: 3 Within one-digit activity 1: 2 Within activity 2: 1 hour.

12. Base SADH (1-digit): 4 hours/day (between 1-digit activities) 2-digit Marginal SADH: 3 hours/day (between 2-digit activities, within 1-digit activities) Decomposition of Marginal SADH; Within Activity 1: 2 hours/day Activity 2: 1 hour/day

13. Time spend on four broad categories (minutes per person per day). All individuals, including non-participants (zeros)

14. Time spend on one-digit activities (minutes per person per day) All individuals, including non-participants (zeros).

15. Top Four ‘Absolute gap’ activity

16. Gap within one-digit activities:

17. Participation rate by ten one-digit activities

18. Top two activities by Participation rate gap

19. Time spend on one-digit activities (per participant per day)

20. Deviation Men (Canadian born – Immigrant), Minutes per day. All individuals, including non-participants (zeros).

21. Deviation for Women (Canadian born – Immigrant), Minutes per day. All individuals, including non-participants (zeros).

22. Gender Gap (Male – Female)

23. Dissimilarity by level of disaggregation: Male (Canadian Born – Immigrant) SADH: WAD One-digit: 58 min/day 0.04 Two-digit 85 min/day 0.06 Three-digit 101 min/day 0.07 • Required time reallocation: • To achieve equality at one-digit level: i) 58 minutes between one-digit activities • To achieve equality at two-digit level: i) 58 minutes between one-digit activities plus another ii) 27 minutes between two-digit activities within same one-digit activity. • To achieve equality at three-digit level: ii) 58 minutes between one-digit activities plus another ii) 27 between two-digit activities within same one-digit activity plus another iii) 16 minutes between three-digit activities within same two-digit activity.

24. Dissimilarity by level of disaggregation: Female (Canadian Born– Immigrant) SADH: WAD One-digit: 43 min/day 0.03 Two-digit 73 min/day 0.05 Three-digit 85 min/day 0.06 • Required time reallocation: • To achieve equality at one-digit level: i) 43 minutes between one-digit activities • To achieve equality at two-digit level: i) 43 minutes between one-digit activities plus another ii) 30 minutes between two-digit activities within same one-digit activity. • To achieve equality at three-digit level: ii) 43 minutes between one-digit activities plus another ii) 30 between two-digit activities within same one-digit activity plus another iii) 13 minutes between three-digit activities within same two-digit activity.

25. Male Female 1-Digit 58 43 2-Digit 58+27=85 43+30=73 3-Digit 85+16=101 73+13=85

26. Conclusions: On time use pattern by immigration status: Most gap in education. Within Household work: Home maintenance, outdoor work. Entertainment. Media: • Gender gap among Canadian born and immigrant groups are remarkably similar. • On measures of dissimilarity: Sum of absolute deviation halved (SADH) can be reported. At the lowest level of disaggregation: the base SADH measure Then at a higher level of aggregation: the marginal SADH, and its decomposed by a lower level of coding.