The Nexus between the Racialized and Gendered Organization of Precarious Employment and the Lived Experiences of Racialized Immigrant Women in Canada: A Review of the Academic Literature

Increasingly, highly educated racialized immigrant women are overrepresented in low-paying, low skill jobs that are situated in toxic work environments plagued by Ontario Employment Standards (ESA) violations and discriminatory employer practices. Various sites of oppression linked to socio-economic exclusion and class dislocation channel this population into racialized gendered professions that deepen their marginalization and increase employment precarity. This Major Research Paper consists of a literature review of peer-reviewed journal articles that specifically examine the lived experiences of racialized immigrant women in the Canadian labour market. Three themes emerged from the data: (1) labour market barriers, (2) social and structural barriers, and (3) labour market experiences. The results indicate that most studies focus on small groups of racialized immigrant women in one region vs. large-scale statistical analyses of various cities across Canada. Such an approach could provide pertinent information to help policy makers develop comprehensive labour market supports geared towards this population.