Section 5:
Gender-based Analysis of the Impact of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act
Gender-based analysis (GBA) is an evidence-based assessment of the impact policies, programs, legislation and services have on diverse groups of women, men, girls and boys. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) is required by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to report on gender impacts of the Act. CIC’s new Policy on Gender-based Analysis was launched in 2011 and applies across all of CIC’s business lines, from policy development to program implementation. The new policy reflects the Department’s continuing commitment to incorporating gender and diversity considerations throughout its mandate, including citizenship and multiculturalism. The policy builds on CIC’s previous GBA Strategic Framework by positioning GBA as an analytical tool that recognizes that equal opportunity does not necessarily mean equal results. Applying GBA involves the consideration of the intersections of gender and other diversity factors, including ethnicity, religion, nationality, class, age and sexual orientation.
CIC has continued to work with its federal government partners in areas relevant to GBA. Specifically, CIC supported efforts by Status of Women Canada to implement GBA as a sustainable practice across departments and agencies. For example, the Action Plan on Gender-based Analysis was developed in response to the 2009 report on GBA from the Office of the Auditor General. As one of several departments in 2011, CIC contributed to the action plan to provide a GBA self-assessment on the implementation of GBA frameworks. As well, CIC continued to participate along with 14 other federal departments and agencies in the Family Violence Initiative led by the Public Health Agency of Canada. This is a long-term commitment of the Government of Canada to collaborate with provinces and territories, as well as research and community partners, to address violence within relationships of kinship, intimacy, dependency or trust.
CIC’s operational data-gathering activities continue to incorporate gender as a standard element of analysis of permanent and temporary resident arrivals. The following section describes a number of key trends in permanent and temporary resident arrivals. Among the key findings over the period of analysis is a narrowing of the gender gap in economic immigration with, for example, a growing share of women arriving as principal applicants in higher professional skilled categories and a shrinking proportion of women arriving within the Family Class stream. This suggests that changes to the permanent resident category are helping to reduce some gender disparities.
Gender-based Analysis of Permanent Resident and Temporary Resident Arrivals
In 2011, Canada admitted 248,748 permanent residents. The number of women and men admitted as permanent residents (both as principal applicants, and spouses and dependants) has remained relatively stable over the past decade. On average, between 2002 and 2011 women accounted for 51.0 percent and men accounted for 49.0 percent of permanent residents.
Chart 1: Trends in Proportion of Female and Male Permanent Residents in Economic, Family Class, Refugee, and Other Immigrant Streams, 2002 to 2011
Men continued to make up the larger proportion of total economic immigrants in 2011–156,121 entrants, which includes principal applicants, as well as spouses and dependants. The gap between male and female economic immigrants, however, narrowed over the past 10 years (Chart 2). The largest gap occurred in 2002 when 53.4 percent of economic immigrants were men and 45.6 percent women. This gap gradually narrowed, with a more balanced distribution in 2010 of 50.8 percent men and 49.2 percent women. However, in 2011, the gap increased slightly (51.3 percent men and 48.7 percent women).
Chart 2: Percentage of Female and Male Economic Immigrants, 2002 to 2011
There was little change in the past year in the top 10 countries of origin for both male and female principal applicants. Since 2007 there has been a steady increase in the proportion of both male and female entrants from the Philippines, although there was a dip in the last year in entries of women from the Philippines. China, India, Iran and France rounded out the top five source countries for both male and female economic immigrants in 2011.
For the 2002–2011 period, women made up the larger proportion of the Family Class category. However, there has been a relatively steady decline from the 2004 high of 61.9 percent to 57.9 percent in 2011 (Chart 3).
Chart 3: Percentage of Female and Male Family Class, 2002 to 2011
There has been a relatively steady increase in the proportion of women in the refugee and asylum stream from a low of 47.3 percent in 2002 to a high of 49.9 percent in 2011 (Chart 4).
Chart 4: Percentage of Female and Male Refugees, 2002 to 2011
Male and female permanent residents—Principal economic applicants who enter Canada
Women have been steadily making up an increasing proportion of economic principal applicants (skilled workers, entrepreneurs, self-employed, investors, Canadian Experience Class, provincial/territorial nominees and live-in caregivers). This increase is particularly marked when 2002 figures (26.5 percent) are compared with those of 2011 (40.8 percent) (Chart 5).
Chart 5: Percentage of Male and Female Principal Economic Applicants, 2002 to 2011
In the skilled workers category for principal applicants, a continuing trend saw a reduction in the gender gap from 2002 to 2011 (75 percent/25 percent to 61 percent/39 percent). This significant trend is also reflected in some of the different occupational skill level categories (Chart 6), for example, in the professional and the skilled and technical categories. In 2002, male principal applicants in the professional category accounted for 76.6 percent while women were at 23.4 percent. By 2011, female principal applicants in this category saw their largest proportion at 44.1 percent. The proportion of women in the skilled and technical category grew from 26.3 percent in 2002 to 33.4 percent in 2011, although the 2011 proportion was a decrease from the proportion of women in this category in 2008 and 2009.
Chart 6: Trends in Proportion of Female and Male Skilled Worker Entrants by Occupational Skill Level, 2002 to 2011
A more detailed analysis of the top-50 National Occupational Classification codes for male and female principal economic applicants also reveals interesting trends, which may be linked to the introduction since 2008 of successive Ministerial Instructions that have established eligible occupations for processing in the Federal Skilled Worker Program. Several occupations in the professional category saw significant growth for female economic principal applicants, especially when 2011 figures are compared with 2002, for example, in the following occupations:
- general practitioners and family physicians increased from six in 2002 to 298 in 2011;
- registered nurses from 170 to 2,150;
- college and other vocational instructors from 37 to 1,169; and
- specialist physicians from nine to 385.
For men, there was significant growth in:
- information systems and data processing managers, from 27 in 2002 to 1,483 in 2011;
- specialist physicians from 47 to 744;
- general practitioners and family physicians from 87 to 524; and
- construction managers from 10 to 451.
In contrast, a number of engineering occupations showed steep declines for both men and women between 2002 and 2011. For example, the number of women entering as electrical and electronics engineers decreased from 485 in 2002 to 85 in 2011; men in this occupation dropped from 3,258 in 2002 to 560 in 2011.
Overview of Male and Female Temporary Resident Entries
For temporary resident initial entries (foreign worker, student, humanitarian grounds, and other categories), the 2011 total of 293,601 was down from the recent high in 2008 of 311,738. Chart 7 shows that men continued to represent the clear majority in these categories of temporary residents although the gap between the proportion of men and women in these three streams has decreased significantly. For instance, the proportion of female temporary foreign workers initial entries has steadily risen since 2002, hitting a peak of 41.4 percent in 2009, a figure that has remained stable since then. During the past decade, the gap was at its largest in 2002 with women representing 34.2 percent and men representing 65.8 percent of temporary foreign workers entering Canada during the year. An interesting counterpoint to this trend involved the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP): while there was significant growth between 2006 and 2008 in the total number of female temporary foreign workers, there was slower growth and then, beginning in 2007, a downward trend in the number of live-in caregivers entering Canada as temporary residents. In other words, growth in the number of female temporary workers is attributable to other temporary worker streams and not to the LCP, which is on a downward trend. It should also be noted that live-in caregivers who enter as temporary residents may subsequently apply for permanent resident status, with a peak of 7,890 occurring in 2010, falling to 5,210 permanent residents in 2011.
Chart 7: Trends in Proportion of Female and Male Temporary Foreign Workers, Students and Humanitarian Grounds Categories (Initial Entry), 2002 to 2011
Unlike other temporary resident entry streams, the initial entries in the international student stream has seen a widening of the gender gap over a 10-year period. While the relative proportion of men and women entrants was close to being equal in 2002 at 51 percent and 49 percent for men and women respectively, there was a gradual widening of the gap between men and women until 2007 (53.3 percent vs. 46.7 percent) followed by a more marked change until 2010 (56.4 percent vs. 43.6 percent). This gap narrowed slightly in 2011, with men making up 55.4 percent and women 44.6 percent. While it is difficult to speculate why this may be occurring, an analysis of source countries reveals that since 2007 there has been significant growth in male student entries from India alongside a decline in the number of female student entries from South Korea.
For the temporary resident humanitarian grounds stream (the bulk of whom are refugee claimants), there has been a gradual and continuing narrowing of gender representation, from a high of 57.9 percent for men in 2002 to the level of 54.4 percent for men in this stream in 2011.
Gender-based Analysis across CIC’s Business Lines
In 2011, CIC continued to conduct GBA in policy and program development, as well as in initiatives in areas such as evaluation. Specific examples of work during the year are highlighted below and include initiatives within CIC’s settlement, refugee, citizenship, health, and immigration policy and program areas.
Settlement Program
To meet Government of Canada and CIC accountability and evaluation requirements, the Department initiated work to redesign the way Settlement Program data are captured from service provider organizations (SPOs). As part of this initiative, CIC is now continuing to redevelop a data collection system to include more detailed modules that will capture program outputs and immediate outcomes. Within the system, CIC has included official language and other language of preference data fields. In addition, CIC will also include gender and diversity questions related to target groups (e.g., youth, seniors, gender-specific, refugees, ethnic/cultural/linguistic groups, clients with hearing or visual impairments or other disabilities). Capturing this type of information will enhance CIC’s understanding of client needs related to delivery of settlement services. In turn, this approach will help identify specific issues related to gender and diversity considerations associated with each target group in order to inform and adapt future policy and program development.
The Department is holding its first integrated, national call for proposals in 2012 and will be receiving applications for regional/local, national and international projects under the Settlement and Resettlement programs. This harmonized, centrally coordinated approach allows CIC to prioritize gender-based projects for funding over other equally successful proposals. The Call for Proposals 2012 Funding Guidelines state: “The Department will also strive to ensure gender and ethno cultural balance in the community of funding recipients”. Specifically, we will use a gender-based focus when assessing projects for funding by allocating additional points for projects that reflect gender balance.
Reformed refugee system
To monitor the effectiveness of recent reforms to the in–Canada refugee determination system, CIC has developed and adopted an extensive list of indicators entitled the Metrics of Success (MoS). CIC will use the MoS to ensure that reforms meet their intended objectives, support improvements to system integrity, and meet reporting and accountability requirements. In developing the MoS, GBA was incorporated so that gender will be among claimant characteristics analysed to help understand and predict the impact that policy changes have on claimant behaviour. In doing so, refugee intake, decision outcomes and processing times will all be analysed from a number of perspectives, including gender, and the results reported in an in-depth quarterly report. A full evaluation of the new in-Canada refugee system will take place three years after the implementation of the reforms and will, in part, be based on the quantitative indicators that make up the MoS.
Similarly, GBA was conducted during the initial drafting of the Comprehensive Country Assessment Framework (CCAF). The overall objective of this framework is to support short- and longer-term policy development and decision making pertaining to refugee and related migration policy. The CCAF forms the basis of Comprehensive Country Assessment reports, which provide information on key elements of source countries of asylum seekers such as socio-economic conditions, security and human rights situation, conditions of at-risk populations, and recourse to state protection. Analysis of volume levels and impacts on the in-land asylum system of Canada is also included. Gender-based analysis was an important criterion used to determine the indicators included in the framework to assess at-risk populations, which may include (but would not be limited to) diverse groups of men, women and children.
Citizenship knowledge test
In the area of citizenship, knowledge test results continued to be monitored and were analysed by gender to support CIC’s citizenship policy and program development. This analysis revealed that the overall test pass rate of female applicants was approximately four percent lower than for male applicants. However, when comparing socio demographic factors influencing citizenship test pass rates, analyses by both CIC and Statistics Canada found that education was the most important variable influencing test pass rates. Once education was accounted for, most differences between demographic groups were negligible, including gender differences. In order to assist applicants in preparing for citizenship, CIC makes an audio version of the citizenship study guide available to facilitate learning of the content and concepts and to assist those working on their English- or French-language proficiency. An e-Book and mobile application version of the guide are also available to enhance accessibility. Furthermore, the issue of citizenship test pass rates was discussed with settlement organizations and provinces to obtain feedback on the needs of vulnerable groups. CIC is currently exploring options to further help applicants prepare for citizenship, including helping them meet the knowledge requirements.
Interim Federal Health Program
GBA was conducted as part of the review of the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP). The objective of the review was to ensure fairness to Canadians, strengthen eligibility criteria, protect public health and safety, and contain costs. The resulting changes to the IFHP will bring benefits better in line with government health benefits that most Canadians receive. The changes end supplementary health coverage for most beneficiaries; for failed claimants and refused claimants from Designated Countries of Origin, the changes provide coverage to protect public health and public safety. Where the GBA revealed disproportionate impacts on vulnerable groups, mitigating measures were considered and measures that were consistent with the stated policy objectives were adopted. For example, as a result of the GBA, it was decided that prenatal and maternity services will continue for those who will have access to Health Care Coverage or Expanded Health Care Coverage under the IFHP. Following reform of the IFHP, CIC will collect and compare gender- and age-disaggregated data from program evaluations against the 2011–2012 baseline data.
Federal Skilled Worker Program
Policy development toward modernizing the selection of federal skilled workers examined how the impacts of proposed regulatory amendments might differ by gender. Overall objectives were to place greater importance on factors that are most strongly associated with successful economic outcomes, such as language abilities, Canadian work experience and the ability to contribute to the Canadian labour market for a longer period before retirement. Several potential GBA impacts were revealed in the analysis of the proposed changes. For example, caregiving responsibilities in the child-bearing years, which may force women to leave the work force, could impact women’s ability to earn work experience points. However, proposed amendments would reduce the relative weight of work experience on the selection points grid, which would help mitigate this impact on women as caregivers. While the financial cost of applying for a foreign education credential assessment may disproportionately impact women who are more likely to have lower income, the anticipated cost was not expected to be so high as to serve as a barrier to the vast majority of cases given the nature of the program. Consequently, the GBA concluded that the underlying need for proposed changes and their anticipated benefits would significantly outweigh the potential negative impact on low-income women.
Gender-based Research
CIC continues to gather and generate gender-disaggregated data in support of policy and program development. For example, the Department’s Facts and Figures: Immigration Overview—Permanent and Temporary Residents is a key data source of immigration statistics for the government, researchers and stakeholders. Facts and Figures provides a gender breakdown by principal applicants and dependants, which can be further analysed to better understand the status of men and women in specific immigration categories.
GBA at CIC was also supported by relevant research conducted through the secretariat of the Metropolis Project, an international network that specializes in comparative research and public policy development on immigration issues. In 2011–2012, the last year of the third and final phase in CIC, Metropolis produced working papers and policy briefs on policy issues related to gender and diversity through its five Metropolis Centres of Excellence.
During the year, Metropolis also hosted a number of Brown Bag seminars that focused on gender and diversity issues. As well, the 14th National Metropolis Conference in Toronto in March 2012 focused on future immigration trends and policies and the challenges and opportunities that they create for Canadian society. The seminars included a large number of workshops and roundtables with gender and diversity themes.
The Research and Evaluation Branch of CIC plans to build on the excellent work of Metropolis. Besides continuing to seek opportunities to collaborate with those who have been involved in the Metropolis Project, the branch will look for new partners who have a shared interest in policy-relevant research as it relates to gender and diversity. To this end, CIC has established a research partnerships function within its Research and Evaluation Branch.
Through its new Policy on Gender-based Analysis, CIC continues to view GBA as an essential tool to identify potential impacts on diverse groups of people and seeks to consider appropriate mitigating measures across all its business lines. In moving forward with this policy, the Department will identify new key areas of analysis, while continuing to collaborate with key GBA partners such as Status of Women Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada.
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