Social capital and economic wellbeing of immigrants in Canada: an analysis of ethnic diversity survey, 2002

Muhammad M Raza, University of Western Ontario
Gebremariam Woldemicael, University of Western Ontario

Social capital is a widely discussed concept and its effectiveness has been tested to a number of social spheres, for example, education, family, civil society, community development, policy making, and other national issues as well. There are contradictory findings regarding the utility of social capital for the income of visible minority immigrants. This paper endeavors to disentangle the impact of social capital by addressing its importance to the integration of visible minority immigrants in Canada. The analysis is based on the 2002 Canadian Ethnic Diversity Survey with a focus on persons aged 25-65 who were born outside Canada. The findings show differential benefits for visible minority immigrant groups. For example, Chinese have advantage over South Asians and South Asians are doing much better than Blacks. Social capital is found to be positively related to income but its impact is meager.