Ongoing research on the labour market in Canada draws attention to disparities in outcomes for workers according to gender, race or immigration status. Often these social identities intersect to form unique barriers that have a marked impact on key labour market outcomes like employment status, income and job segregation.

Racialized immigrant women, for example, have been found to experience a “triple disadvantage,” reporting higher-than-average unemployment rates and lower income levels than other workers. Such findings underscore the fact that the Canadian labour market is not a meritocratic space but one shaped by systemic barriers that produce unequal access to opportunity.

It’s within this context that my recent report sought to investigate the labour market experiences of Muslims in Canada. My co-researchers and I conducted a pilot study, “Working While Muslim,” which drew on data from the 2021 census and an original survey of 423 Muslims in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

Our results point to significant gaps in labour market outcomes between Muslims and non-Muslims that persist even when the data are broken down by gender, immigration status or visible minority status. Muslims in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area have higher unemployment rates, face employment segregation and earn lower incomes than their non-Muslim counterparts.

Why this study matters now

One intention of our study was to show how Islamophobia in Canada has a systemic impact on the well-being of the Muslim community. We released our report to coincide with the........

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