New Data Reveals Employment Gaps For Immigrants With Disabilities

A new national study finds that immigrants with disabilities do not experience employment the same way Canadian born persons with disabilities do, and the gap runs in opposite directions depending on gender and education level. 

Drawing on Labour Force Survey data collected between January 2022 and December 2024, alongside supplementary Disability Labour Market Indicators, researchers compared employment outcomes for immigrants with disabilities against Canadian born persons with disabilities. The analysis focused on adults aged 18 to 64 and examined men and women separately, since gender plays a significant role in shaping employment patterns for persons with disabilities. 

The headline finding is that immigrant men with disabilities were employed at a noticeably higher rate than their Canadian born counterparts, about 72.5 percent versus 64.2 percent. Immigrant women with disabilities showed the opposite pattern, at roughly 62.7 percent employment compared with 66.5 percent for Canadian born women with disabilities. These are not small gaps, and the reasons behind them turn out to be more nuanced than a single explanation can cover. 

Education Levels Look Very Different For Immigrants 

One of the clearest patterns in the data is education. About 43 percent of immigrant men with disabilities held a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with just 16 percent of Canadian born men with disabilities. A similar gap shows up among women: roughly 42 percent of immigrant women with disabilities held a bachelor’s degree or above, against 26 percent of their Canadian born counterparts. 

This makes sense in the context of how Canada’s immigration system works. Selection processes have long favoured well educated, healthier applicants, and immigrants with disabilities in this data set also tended to have an older age at disability onset than Canadian born persons with disabilities. In practical terms, that suggests many immigrants in this group developed their disability after arriving in Canada as healthy, well qualified adults, rather than facing disability related barriers to education earlier in life. 

Where The Employment Gap For Men Actually Comes From 

For men, the higher overall employment rate among immigrants was not spread evenly across every education level. It was concentrated almost entirely among those without a high school diploma. In that group, 52 percent of immigrant men with disabilities were employed compared with just 36 percent of Canadian born men with disabilities, a 16 percentage point gap. At every other education level, from high school diploma through bachelor’s degree, employment rates between immigrant and Canadian born men with disabilities were broadly similar. 

Where The Employment Gap For Women Actually Comes From 

Women showed the reverse pattern. The employment disadvantage for immigrant women with disabilities was concentrated among those holding a bachelor’s degree or above, where about 73 percent were employed compared with 81 percent of Canadian born women with disabilities holding the same credential, an 8 percentage point gap. At lower education levels, employment rates between immigrant and Canadian born women with disabilities were largely similar, and in some cases immigrant women showed slightly better outcomes once researchers adjusted for age, student status, and disability severity. 

Age And Disability Severity Also Differ 

Immigrants with disabilities in this study skewed older than their Canadian born counterparts, with a larger share aged 55 to 64 and a much smaller share aged 18 to 24. Immigrants with disabilities were also somewhat less likely to have a very severe disability. Both factors can influence employment likelihood independently of immigration status, which is why researchers ran adjusted models controlling for age, student status, racialized status, and disability severity. Even after those adjustments, the core patterns for men and women held steady. 

What stands out most to our team is how the story splits so cleanly along gender lines. For men, immigration seems to provide something of a buffer at the lowest education level, possibly because immigrants who arrive without a high school diploma still bring work experience or skills that Canadian employers value differently than they might value the same credential gap in a Canadian born applicant. For women with the highest credentials, the opposite dynamic appears, suggesting that highly educated immigrant women with disabilities may be running into barriers in the Canadian labour market that their male counterparts, and their Canadian born peers, are not facing to the same degree. 

This kind of research matters well beyond academic interest. It points to where settlement supports, credential recognition programs, and workplace accommodation efforts could be better targeted, particularly for highly educated immigrant women managing a disability while trying to enter a labour market that does not always recognize their qualifications the way it should. 

Staying Ahead With Canada Immigration News 

Research like this shapes future immigration and settlement policy, often well before it becomes headline news. Canada Immigration News tracks these studies as they are released, translating the data into insights you can actually use for your immigration journey. 

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