Economic Performance of Off-Reserve Aboriginal Canadians A Study of Groups at Risk of Social Exclusion - January 2002

8. Explaining the stronger long-term economic performance of Off-reserve Aboriginal people among high risk groups

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In the previous section, it was shown that four key "characteristics" enabled people at risk to avoid persistent poverty more often.²³ These are the level of education, participation in the labour market, leaving a high risk group for a non-high risk group and having the fewest possible number of social exclusion risk factors. Since of all of the members of the high risk groups, the members of the Off-reserve Aboriginal group were those who most frequently avoided persistent poverty, we expect them to have these characteristics, at least in part. However, it would appear that these characteristics do not readily explain the stronger economic performance of Off-reserve Aboriginals.

Of all high risk individuals, those belonging to the Off-reserve Aboriginal group were the ones who were most likely to belong to more than one high risk group at a time (see Figure 10). More precisely, close to one out of three members of the Off-reserve Aboriginal group had at least one other social exclusion risk factor in 1993. In the other groups, this proportion varied from less than one out of ten among Recent immigrant, to slightly more than one out of four among Work-limited.²⁴ Single parenthood is much more frequent among the Off-reserve Aboriginal group than in the rest of the population under study. One out of five people belonging to a family whose principal income recipients is an Aboriginal person also belonged to a single parent family, whereas in the larger study sample, the proportion tends to be closer to less than one out of ten (7.5%, as indicated in Figure 1). In addition, more than 10% of Off-reserve Aboriginal people are connected to a principal income recipient having work limitations, surpassed only by the Unattached 45+ group.

Figure 10 - Proportion of Individuals Belonging to More than One High Risk Group in 1993, by Group

Furthermore, Figure 11 indicates that few people belonging to the Off-reserve Aboriginal group left this group in the years after 1993 (18.6%). This mobility between groups is much more frequent among Work-limited (58.6%), Single parent (44.6%) and Recent immigrant (33.2%). Thus, this factor cannot clearly explain the lower propensity of off-reserve Aboriginal people to experience persistent poverty among the different high risk groups.

Figure 11 - Proportion of Individuals Becoming Non-High Risk at Least Once Between 1994 and 1998, by Group.

Finally, the average educational attainment of off-reserve Aboriginal people is not significant in explaining the fact that they more often escape persistent poverty since their level of education is close to the average of all high risk groups (see Figure 12). Since the proportion of the Off-reserve Aboriginal group belonging to families whose principal income recipient had at least a high school diploma in 1993 was approximately halfway (69%) between those belonging to the group in which the principal income recipient least often had a High school diploma, i.e. Work-limited (59 %), and the one in which they were more likely to have one, i.e. Recent immigrant (80 %).

Figure 12 - Proportion of High Risk Individuals Whose Principal Income Recipient Had at Least One High School Diploma in 1993, by Group

Nonetheless, despite the fact that off-reserve Aboriginal principal income recipients are not that well educated, a larger proportion of them had a job than the principal income recipients of the other high risk groups.

Figure 13 - Proportion of High Risk Individuals Whose Principal Income Recipient Worked Full-Time, Part-Time or Was Self-Employed in 1993, by Group

Figure 13 indicates that individuals belonging to the Off-reserve Aboriginal group are those who, among all the high risk groups, had the best chance of being part of a family whose principal income recipient worked full-time, part-time or was self-employed in 1993 (83%). Moreover, according to Figure 14, among all the people belonging to a family whose principal income recipient worked in 1993, off-reserve Aboriginal people were in second place in terms of being the most likely to have belonged to a family whose principal income recipient worked full-time all year (68%) trailing only by the Unattached 45+ (71%).

Figure 14 - Proportion of High Risk Individuals Whose Principal Income Recipient Worked Full-Time Throughout 1993 Among Those Who Worked in that Same Year, by Group

The principal income recipient is generally more likely to work in a given year if he/she is an off-reserve Aboriginal person than if he/she is a single parent, recent immigrant, person with work limitations or unattached aged 45 or more living alone. However, according to Figures 15 and 16, he/she is also more likely to experience stability in the labour market and to never depend on government transfers. An individual belonging to the Off-reserve Aboriginal group in 1993 was more likely (50%) than members of other high risk groups to have a principal income recipient who received the majority of his/her income from a salary or self-employment income until the end of the period under study, i.e. 1998. And, although individuals belonging to the Recent immigrant group are close to being in this same situation (49%), this proportion fell to less than 35% in the three other high risk groups. Finally, fewer than 40% of Off-reserve Aboriginal people were associated with a principal income recipient in 1993 whose family income depended at one time or another on government transfers between 1993 and 1998. This proportion varied between 50% and 70% in the other high risk groups.

Figure 15 - Proportion of High Risk Individuals Whose Principal Income Recipient in 1993 Had a Salary or Self-Employment Income as the Main Source of Income Every Year Between 1993 and 1998, by Group

Figure 16 - Proportion of High Risk Individuals Whose Principal Income Recipient in 1993 Never Had Transfer Payments as the Main Source of Income Between 1993 and 1998, by Group

• ²³Other characteristics that were not addressed in the previous section may influence the economic performance of members of high risk groups, such as the average age of the principal income recipient, the average number of people contributing to the family income, etc. Preliminary studies led the researchers to limit the analysis by selecting the four most relevant characteristics for the purposes of the study, these being the ones that provided the most meaningful results.
• ²⁴The inclusion of Unattached 45+ people among the high risk groups is not as readily explained as that of the other high risk groups. Thus, HRDC researchers looked at this issue in an effort to understand the reason(s) for their inclusion among the high risk group. This work essentially discovered that a significant number of them had other social exclusion risk factors, mostly work limitations. Approximately 25% of Unattached 45+ people also had work limitations in 1993.

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