Employment mobility is a critical feature of immigrants’ settlement experiences
and longer-term life chances. While current research typically treats mobility
as a singular outcome, becoming established in a new labor market is a complex
process that can entail multiple transitions in and out of employment and
between different types of jobs over time. This article advances understanding
of the process of immigrant labor market incorporation by engaging with its
potentially multidimensional, cumulative, and path-dependent aspects. Using data
from the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada, I test the impact of an
empirically derived typology of month-by-month immigrant employment trajectories
on the odds of occupational degradation and on weekly wages. I find that the
pathways immigrants take through the labor market in their first four years
constitute a distinct and important mechanism shaping later employment
outcomes.
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