Racialized

The future of work will hit vulnerable people the hardest: U of T expert

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 15:11:10 +0000

The future of work will hit vulnerable people the hardest: U of T expert

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 03/09/2020 - 11:11

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People with disabilities, youth, LGBTQ2 people, Indigenous Peoples, certain racialized minorities, immigrants and those with low socioeconomic status are among those who will face barriers to entering the workforce in the future (photo via Shutterstock)

Arif Jetha

Topic

Our Community

Alumni

Artificial Intelligence

Automation

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

A great deal of attention is being paid to the future of work and its impact on Canadians. Often missing from the discussion is the extent to which different workers will be included or excluded from the changing labour market.

The future of work is characterized by a number of rapid and large-scale changes that will affect all industries. Labour market experts point to the growing integration of digital technologies in the workplace, including the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning, automation of job tasks and the robotization of employment.

These technological drivers of change may be coupled with ecological and demographic stresses – like the climate crisis and the aging workforce – that are expected to substantially change the type and availability of jobs, working conditions and the ways work is performed.

But as we look into the Canadian labour market landscape, certain groups of workers face more challenges than the rest of the population. People living with disabilities, youth, LGBTQ2 people, Indigenous Peoples, certain racialized minorities, immigrants and those with low socioeconomic status often face complex barriers to entering the workforce.

Fewer opportunities

When employed, these groups are more likely than population averages to earn lower incomes, experience hazardous working conditions, work precariously, have limited access to employment legislation or statutory benefits and have fewer opportunities for career advancement.

Not all workers experience the benefits of technological growth.

For example, the integration of personal computers in the 1980s contributed to economic expansion and increased demand for workers with technological job skills. But it also spurred a displacement of workers in low-skilled manual and clerical jobs.

As the pace of change in the labour market quickens in the years ahead, the sustainable employment of vulnerable groups could be in greater jeopardy and inequity could widen.

Research seeking to understand the future of work is in its early stages and mainly focuses on technological trends like automation. A 2016 analysis of occupational data estimates that 42 per cent of Canadians work in jobs with a high risk of being affected by automation. The same analysis found that entry-level and low-skilled jobs – those ⁠more commonly held by vulnerable workers – are three times more likely to be affected by automation than professional and management jobs.

Racial disparity

A more recent study conducted by the U.S.-based consulting firm McKinsey & Company highlighted a potential racialized disparity that could worsen with increasing automation. The study found that African-Americans and Hispanic and Latino workers are over-represented in occupations that are expected to be displaced by automation.

One study showed young African-American men with less education are at the highest risk of displacement by automation (photo via Shutterstock)

The study also showed the intersection between race, age and education: Young African-American men with less education are at the highest risk of displacement by automation.

This is just one of a potentially growing number of examples of the impact the future of work may have on vulnerable workers.

To prepare for this expected impact, work has begun on understanding the jobs skills required in the future labour market.

Critical thinking skills

A report by the World Economic Forum indicates that by 2022 the job skills most required by employers will include not only proficiency with new technologies, but also creativity, emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills. The report also found that over half of all existing workers will require significant re-skilling and upskilling to meet the demands of the changing labour market.

However, obtaining these needed job skills may also pose a challenge for certain workers. Data indicates that some groups of workers who are considered vulnerable are more likely to enter the workforce with lower levels of education – another position of disadvantage.

They may also be working in jobs where training and job skills development are scarce. It’s unclear how differences in access to educational opportunities could perpetuate the challenges faced by vulnerable workers in the future of work.

To further our understanding of the future of work, scientists at the Institute for Work & Health, a Toronto-based not-for-profit, are leading research to examine how the changing nature of work may be experienced differently across the labour market. In particular, research is being conducted to anticipate how the different trends will affect vulnerable workers, including young adults and people living with disabilities.

Minimizing shocks and stresses

The ultimate goal of the research is to build on our current understanding of the future of work and uncover potential challenges that could emerge for different groups. Importantly, the research will inform tailored policies and programs to minimize the shocks and stresses.

Increasing numbers of policy- and industry-level initiatives are being undertaken to understand the implications of the future of work and design innovative responses to navigate the changing nature of work. An example is the pan-Canadian Future Skills Centre.

As these initiatives evolve and programs are designed, it will be important to determine how Canadians who have been considered vulnerable members of the workforce are meaningfully included.

Arif Jetha is an assistant professor (status only) at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

#UofTGrad17: George Elliott Clarke's message to Black grads

ullahnor — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 14:35:26 +0000

#UofTGrad17: George Elliott Clarke's message to Black grads

ullahnor Tue, 06/06/2017 - 10:35

Topic

Professor George Elliott Clarke, Canada's Parliamentary Poet Laureate, is out of the country and will not be able to attend Canada's first Black Grad ceremony at U of T on June 22. But he sent a message to U of T's Black grads, via U of T News:

Dear University of Toronto Black Graduands:

As an African-Canadian faculty member from historic Africadia (African-Nova Scotia), a descendant of slaves and those who fled slavery and struggled against it, and as a son of working-class
parents in Halifax, Nova Scotia, I think I may guess at – and not be incorrect – about some of the challenges that some of you have faced, and the obstacles you have overcome, to be where you are at today. I congratulate you on your historic achievement.

The history of the African odyssey in the so-called New World has focussed on two interlocking struggles: The right to justice and the right to Equality. But both of these struggles have also been – and remain – dependent on the struggle for truly life-enhancing, consciousness-raising, and politically liberating education. Our forebears thought we should know about health care and Harriet Tubman, mathematics and Marcus Garvey, Africa and Art, science and Sierra Leone – and they were not wrong. We have always had to have a double-track to education: To learn all we can from, and about the Occident (where we are), but to carry forward and carry back (too) the intellectual gifts of Africa – the elliptical, the algebraic, the respect for geometry (even rhythm is just a geometrical expression of musical 'time'), and all the theologies and progressive sociologies born on African soil.

To be where you are now, as almost graduates of Canada's greatest university and one of the top two-dozen post-secondary institutions on the planet, and to be conscious citizens at this particular testing time in history, is already a testament to your fortitude, your optimism, your enthusiasm, your intellectual convictions, and your dedicated work. You stand on the threshold of great accomplishment.

Don't delay: Go forward and dare and achieve! To amend Garvey, I say, “Up ye mighty graduates; accomplish what you will!”

George Elliott Clarke
E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature
University of Toronto

U of T sociologist researches the effects of racialized border practices on Canadian Muslims

ullahnor — Mon, 01 May 2017 20:49:29 +0000

U of T sociologist researches the effects of racialized border practices on Canadian Muslims

ullahnor Mon, 05/01/2017 - 16:49

Cutline

U of T Mississauga's Paula Maurutto is following up on previous research on travel and Muslim identity (photo by Paula Maurutto)

Blake Eligh

Author legacy

Blake Eligh

Topic

Canada Border Services

Sociology

Diversity

Racialized

A U of T sociologist is investigating the effects of racialized border practices on identity and citizenship of Canadian Muslims.

U of T Mississauga Professor Paula Maurutto and co-researcher Baljit Nagra of the University of Ottawa are following up on their previous research on travel and Muslim identity.

Back in 2016, Maurutto and Nagra published a study in the Canadian Journal of Sociology in which they interviewed 50 young Canadians who are Muslim between the ages of 18 and 31 living in Vancouver and Toronto. At the time, interviewees reported that they felt fearful they would be stripped of their rights and said they felt a lack of ability to freely assert their religious identities when travelling.

“Our interviewees referred to being repeatedly stopped, questioned, detained and harassed by security personnel,” Maurutto says. “They felt that any evidence of their Muslim identity – name, country of birth, appearance or clothing – made them a target for extra surveillance.”

Researchers found that respondents made a point of moderating their religious or cultural identities when travelling. In some cases, this meant trimming beards for men, and forgoing a hijab or choosing a colourful scarf instead of a black one for women, as well as adopting a more “North American” style of dress. Respondents said the negative border experiences often served to reinforce their religious and cultural identities. About 30 per cent of interviewees said their Muslim identity had been a focal point of their identity before 9/11, but 68 per cent reported identifying more strongly as Muslim and feeling a deeper connection to their faith after 9/11, due to feelings about needing to protect their faith.

“They reported taking on more of an identity to counteract perceptions and human rights complaints. Women who had not worn headscarves became politicized and began wearing them as a political statement,” Maurutto says.

The researchers are taking another look at the effects of racialized border practices. Currently, they are looking at the effect of C-51 on Muslim travellers. Passed in 2007, the legislation expanded the Canadian Passenger Protect Program so the government could add anyone to the no-fly list who they suspected might engage in terrorism.

“At the time, it was estimated that there were between 500 and 2,000 names on that list,” Maurutto says. “We don’t have current data on who has been added to or removed from the list since then.

“It’s very difficult to get information about the list – people only find out that they’re on it when they are denied a boarding pass, and there’s very little recourse to get one’s name removed from the list. It has real implications – it affects whether people can leave the country for business, to visit family, accompany their children or go abroad for university.

“The government has created legislation and practices with a serious impact that hasn’t been thought out carefully. Their freedoms are being restricted because they are part of a group. But these are human rights and civil rights violations of people who have legitimate Canadian status. We have to understand how human rights are being violated, and why certain groups are targeted.”

OkCupid is just one of the teaching tools for this new U of T sociologist

ullahnor — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 19:57:30 +0000

OkCupid is just one of the teaching tools for this new U of T sociologist

ullahnor Thu, 03/02/2017 - 14:57

Cutline

Sociology Professor Rachel La Touche tries to stay away from the “sage on the stage” style of a university lecture (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Topic

City & Culture

Racialized

Sociology

Faculty of Arts & Science

Teaching

Undergraduate Education

Subheadline

In her research, she explores inequality in people’s everyday interactions

Students in Rachel La Touche's “Logic of Social Inquiry” class use the popular dating site OkCupid to test research questions about how socio-demographic traits like age, sex and race influence dating outcomes.

In her own research, U of T's new assistant professor of sociology explores inequality and how it manifests in people’s everyday interactions.

La Touche was recently recruited from Indiana University in Bloomington to U of T's Faculty of Arts & Science. It's still early in her university career, but she's already received awards for her teaching: In Indiana, La Touche received the Lieber Memorial Teaching Associate Award for outstanding teaching by a graduate student.

Part of her success is in departing from the “sage on the stage” stereotype of the university lecture.

“Research shows that lecturing doesn’t lend itself to the type of deep-learning, critical-thinking and application skills that many instructors – like myself – hope to instill in students,” says La Touche.

“While I don’t think it’s always necessary to reinvent the wheel, there are some topics and learning processes that require more creative techniques than merely lecturing from PowerPoint slides.”

Making sure that material is relevant to students is key.

One way La Touche achieves this is by bridging sociological theory with real-world situations.

“To be blunt, the OkCupid project answers the ‘Who cares?’ question that so many undergraduates have when instructors are lecturing about particular issues,” says LaTouche.

“It lets students conduct hands-on research on a topic that interests them, and that many have experience with personally.”

And while dating outcomes may seem like a “lightweight” consequence, the students quickly gain a sense of how the same socio-demographic characteristics that influence dating outcomes can influence other reward opportunities and life chances.

La Touche first experimented with using OkCupid as a research tool in Indiana where her students examined public data from the site to determine who is more likely to lie in online dating profiles – males or females, individuals of high or low income, old or young?

Once each group had formulated their answers, they then explained them using a sociological theory covered in class. For example, if a group of students determined that older individuals are more likely to lie on dating profiles than their younger counterparts, they were asked to posit some explanations as to why this is, using a sociological theory.

La Touche notes that there are a number of limitations of this exercise – OkCupid data, for example, do not satisfy the conditions of rigorous, scholastic work – but it does encourage students to use critical thinking and analytical skills and engage in collaborative discussion about theory and methods.

“If students think that all scholars do is philosophize about the world, the majority of them won’t take an interest. And while their perception of scholars may not be accurate, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. What it reflects is the fact that students have diverse interests and backgrounds, as well as different educational and career goals.”

In her research, La Touche explores inequality and how it manifests in people’s everyday interactions.

“I’m starting work on a study that will examine how racial and gender biases play out in university classroom settings – both from students towards professors, and professors towards students. There is some insight about how this works from elementary and high school settings but far less at the university level.”

While details of the project are still being worked out, La Touche hopes to take advantage of the large and diverse student and faculty pool at U of T to explore whether racial and gender bias might impact things like student evaluations of teaching. Some U.S. studies have shown that student evaluations disadvantage female instructors, for example.

“I’m curious about how both students and instructors come to the classroom setting with biases about the other, and whether this impacts not only evaluations but also classroom conduct and climate in general.”

Down the road, La Touche’s research might shed light on the relatively poor tenure rate of instructors from marginalized backgrounds across higher education or suggest changes to the way tenure profiles are evaluated for instructors.

“But, the first step here is really understanding what’s going on.”

Asian job applicants face tougher odds: U of T researchers part of joint study on interview callback rates

ullahnor — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 15:47:37 +0000

Asian job applicants face tougher odds: U of T researchers part of joint study on interview callback rates

ullahnor Wed, 01/25/2017 - 10:47

Cutline

Professor Jeffrey Reitz says the findings call for an “anonymized resumé review” process to identify candidates by code not name (photo by Kathryn Decker via Flickr)

Adrienne Harry

Author legacy

Adrienne Harry

Topic

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Job applicants with Asian names and Canadian qualifications have less chance of getting called in for interviews than those with Anglo-Canadian names, even with a better education, say researchers at the University of Toronto who are part of a joint study.

Using data from a recent large-scale Canadian employment report to examine interview callback rates, the study by the University of Toronto and Ryerson University shows discrimination against Asian job seekers in Canada.

Co-authored by Jeffrey Reitz, sociology professor at the Faculty of Arts & Science and director of ethnic, immigration and pluralism studies at U of T's Munk School of Global Affairs, the report assesses the extent of discrimination experienced by job applicants with Asian (Chinese, Indian or Pakistani) names.

Called “Do Large Employers Treat Racial Minorities More Fairly?” the report shows that Asian-named job applicants are less likely than Anglo-named job seekers to be selected for an interview, even if their qualifications are identical.

Asian-named applicants are at even more of a disadvantage if some or all of their qualifications are obtained outside of Canada. With foreign credentials, applicants with Asian names are 45 to 60 per cent less likely to be selected for an interview compared to their Anglo-named counterparts. These hiring biases are most prevalent in smaller businesses, which employ more than 70 per cent of private sector employees in Canada.

“A lot of Canadians think that we’ve already addressed this problem, that it was taken care of decades ago when we brought in various policies to address it,” says Reitz. “But this study clearly shows that this isn’t the case. We’re focusing on a particular part of the recruitment process – a critical part – but it’s only one stage. So whatever biases are underlying recruitment decisions might also underlie other decisions employers make.”

Reitz points out that discrimination has significant impacts on Asian job seekers as well as employers. While these applicants have to try harder to find work, employers stand to miss out on a skilled and valuable talent pool. And without continuing research, Reitz cautions that hiring bias may be hard to spot.

“We can learn a lot from this type of study because we’re looking at behaviour that is somewhat ‘invisible.’ When an employer throws a resume in the wastebasket, no one is there to witness it,” says Reitz. “For many, the obvious remedy to discrimination is to go to the Canadian Human Rights Commission. But it’s hard to speak up about being a victim of discrimination if you never find out about it.”

Reitz, along with co-authors Philip Oreopoulos from U of T Mississauga’s department of economics and Rupa Banarjee from Ryerson University, attended a panel discussion on the study thus week.

Hosted by Hire Immigrants and moderated by Senator Ratna Omidvar, the panel will discuss how to use this research to prompt meaningful action within Canadian companies, and what role government, educational institutions, and labour unions can play in creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce.

Although the report highlights disadvantages for a very specific group of job seekers, Reitz says it’s in everyone’s best interest to address hiring bias. “When qualified applicants miss out on opportunities for jobs, we should all be concerned. It is in our collective interest to ensure that everyone can contribute his or her skills and abilities.”

Reitz, told the Star that the findings call for an “anonymized resumé review” process, which would identify candidates by code not name.

“Some people are concerned this is something we are doing to accommodate minorities, giving an advantage to minority people by deferring to them,” said Reitz. “But no matter what political correctness is doing, it is not offsetting the problems.”

Carding controversy: U of T faculty members speak out

Romi Levine — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 15:41:28 +0000

Carding controversy: U of T faculty members speak out

Romi Levine Wed, 12/07/2016 - 10:41

Cutline

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders speaks with media at a carding consultation meeting at the Toronto Reference Library (Cole Burston/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

A group of leading Torontonians is calling for carding to be abolished and all data gathered through the practice to be destroyed.

The call comes in an open letter issued after the Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB) announced a new carding policy Nov. 17. That policy says police can still stop, question and document people – but not for being part of a racialized group.

The letter was authored by Rinaldo Walcott, an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) and director of the Faculty of Arts & Science's Women and Gender Studies Institute, and author Dionne Brand, former poet laureate for Toronto.

“The decision by the TPSB represents a significant impact on the rights of Black, Indigenous, and Brown people, as well as homeless people and other marginalized people in our Toronto community,” the letter says.

It has been signed by 53 community members, from artists to academics – including U of T faculty members Alissa Trotz and Beverly Bain.

Those opposed to carding say the practice disproportionately targets young Black men and racialized groups.

“Statistics tell us that Black men have been stopped at least four times in their lifetime repetitively, which is unknown for white men or any other category of racialized men,” says Bain.

A lecturer in women and gender studies at U of T Mississauga, Bain has been an anti-racism activist for over 30 years.

Last year, a group of influential Ontarians including U of T President Meric Gertler banded together to urge Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders to reform carding practices.

“It just seemed to be a practice that could not be justified,” President Gertler told The Globe and Mail earlier this year.

Toronto’s new carding policy states that police cannot approach anyone they deem suspicious because of race, but some police will still have access to data from previous incidents.

“We wanted to send an open message to young Black people that we are with them, that we know they are our cousins or nieces or younger brothers or sisters, and so on,” says Walcott.

“But most importantly, we felt that it was important that other members of the Toronto community know that Black people are not looking away. That for us, this is not business as usual, that the effects of carding and the ongoing debate about its legitimacy has been extremely difficult for Black people.”

Bain says it’s important to put pressure on the police, the city and the province.

“It was really critical for me to sign this letter because what we know is that carding is a violation of the person, of young Black men's right to be able to walk the streets safely without being profiled.”

U of T’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work is also joining the conversation around carding. It’s sponsoring an event at OISE in partnership with the Urban Alliance on Race Relations that brings together legal experts and human rights advocates to discuss the current state of carding and how it affects communities in Toronto.

“Carding and racial profiling are discriminatory acts that reflect structural inequalities that impact the health, mental health and well-being of marginalized populations,” says Reshma Dhrodia, the student life, outreach & equity adviser at Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.

“The faculty believes that supporting this event and amplifying the voices of those on the panel will help illuminate further the role of social workers doing direct work and policy work with the persons and communities that experience this kind of discrimination.”

Racialized

The future of work will hit vulnerable people the hardest: U of T expert

Fewer opportunities

Racial disparity

Critical thinking skills

Minimizing shocks and stresses

#UofTGrad17: George Elliott Clarke's message to Black grads

U of T sociologist researches the effects of racialized border practices on Canadian Muslims

OkCupid is just one of the teaching tools for this new U of T sociologist

Asian job applicants face tougher odds: U of T researchers part of joint study on interview callback rates

Read more at the Toronto Star

Carding controversy: U of T faculty members speak out