Chapter 24 FSU Immigrants in Canada: A Case of Positive Triple Selection?

This chapter investigates the economic performance of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) countries in Canada. The contribution of this chapter lies in its use of the fall of the Soviet Union as a natural experiment to detect possible differential labour market performances of immigrants undergoing different screening systems and affected by different push and pull factors. In short, the collapse of the former Soviet Union allows an exogenous supply change in the number and type of FSU immigrants potentially destined to enter Canada. For this purpose, Census micro-level data from the 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001 Canadian Population Census are utilised to estimate earnings and employment outcomes for immigrants arriving from the Soviet Union and from FSU countries before and after the collapse.