Census reveals wide inequality; Minorities becoming the majority
2017Barry Weisleder 2017-11Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 10 →
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10 SOCIALIST ACTION NOVEMBER 2017 As the population of Canada be comes more diverse, the income gap between those who identify as vis ible minorities, Indigenous or recent immigrants, and the rest of Canadi ans remains huge. According to cen sus data released on Oct. 25, total income was 26 per cent lower for visible minorities than non-visible minorities, and 25 per cent lower for Indigenous people than non-In digenous people.
Recent immigrants—many of whom are also visible minorities— have total incomes 37 per cent be low total incomes for Canadian born, the data shows.
The face of Canada is changing rapidly. More than 22 per cent of Ca nadians—including 51.5 per cent of Torontonians—reported being from a visible minority community in 2016, up from 16.3 per cent nation ally in 2006.
Some 7.5 million people, out of a population of 35 million, reported being foreign-born individuals who immigrated to Canada. Asia, includ ing the Middle East, is the largest source of recent immigrants at 61.8 per cent, followed by Africa at 13.4 per cent. Europe, once dominant at 61.6 per cent in 1971, now ranks third at 11.6 per cent. The census counted 1.67 million Indigenous people in Canada in 2016, about 4.9 per cent of the total—a growth rate of 42.5 per cent over the last 10 years, four times the rate of the non-Indigenous population.
The reality is that racialized peo ple continue to face discrimination, which is aided and abetted by cor porate management practices in hiring and pay, and also thanks to policies like the Temporary Foreign Worker Programme. Combating racist exploitation, alongside the fight against precarious work, have become the “do or die” imperatives for the labour movement. Will it be working-class unity against in equality, or will it be hateful division along racial and ethnic lines to be exploited by the alt-right? The fate of society hangs in the balance. n
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Ernie Gotta / Socialist Action