Table 9.

Immigration statistics for women, 15 years and over. (various years).

Comment: .

Table 9 indicates a considerable variation in the number of women admitted as immigrants in any given year. There has been a consistent increase in the number of married women and of widows. The latter group are probably admitted to facilitate family reunion. There has been a decline in single women and a very slight decline in divorced and separated women.

Immigration statistics give little indication of how many women are actually destined for the labour force, since such persons are not tabulated separately from the men. However, we have approximated a percentage of non- working wives on the basis that those categorized as "spouses" are in fact dependent wives. On this basis the percent of non-working wives appears to be too low when compared to the participation rates for women in the general population. In 1976, for example, only 30% of immigrant wives were destined for the labour force; while the participation rate for wives in the general population in the same year was just over 43%.

The reasons for this are not clear. It is possible that wives request admission as non-working dependents to avoid difficulties at the time of application for admission. They then seek work as soon as they are settled in Canada.