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Transition to adulthood of refugee and immigrant children in Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2020

Yoko Yoshida Open the ORCID record for Yoko Yoshida [Opens in a new window]  and
Jonathan Amoyaw
Yoko Yoshida*
Affiliation:
Dalhousie University
Jonathan Amoyaw
Affiliation:
Dalhousie University
*
*Corresponding author. Email: yoko.yoshida@dal.ca
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Abstract

The majority of refugees are children and youth and their integration and life-course transitions are a research priority. This paper examines the timing of refugee children and youths’ entrance into the labour market and family formation (marriage/common law union and parenthood). It does so by examining how admission category, knowledge of a host country’s official languages, and age at arrival shape their transition to adulthood. Using data from the Canadian Longitudinal Immigration Database and Heckman selection estimation, the paper finds minimal variation in refugee children and youths’ entry into the labour market compared to children of other immigrant streams. It also finds that refugee children and youth start forming families at a younger age than children of economic class immigrants, but at an older age than family class children. The analysis also shows limited effects of knowledge of official language prior to arrival while age at arrival has a robust impact on their adulthood transitions. These findings shed light on the unique patterns of life-course transition among refugee children and youth and contribute to a better conceptualization of their experiences relative to children and youth of other immigrants.

Keywords

administrative dataadulthood transitionCanadaintegrationrefugees
Type
Original Article
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 41 , Special Issue 6: The Language, Literacy and Social Integration of Refugee Children and Youth , November 2020 , pp. 1465 - 1495
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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