1. Evidence-based research in action
Presentation to the OCASI ED Forum
Maryse Lemoine
Coordinator
Toronto Immigrant Employment Data Initiative
York University

2. Table of contents
• What is TIEDI?
• How does it work?
• Publications
• Challenges
• Future

3. What is TIEDI?
• Knowledge mobilization project
• Funded by SSHRC and York University,
for the period of 2008-2011
• Steering committee:
– faculty members from York and Ryerson
– community representatives from OCASI,
TRIEC, WES

4. How does TIEDI work?
Forum
October 2008
June 2010
Workshops
Labour market outcomes
Barriers to employment
Workplace/career information
Mapping
Circulate questionsWrite reports
Training
Rapid Data

5. TIEDI’s publications
• 13 analytical reports
• Labour market update (May 2010 – )
• 30+ fact sheets

6. Challenges in working with data
• Amount of information
• Datasets & getting access to them
• Reliability
• Availability

7. Challenges: Amount of information
• Census
• Ethnic Diversity Survey (EDS)
• International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey
(IALSS)
• Labour Force Survey (LFS)
• Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada
(LSIC)
• Permanent Residents Data System / Landings
data
• Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics
• Workplace and Employee Survey (WES)

8. Challenges: Datasets
Statistics Canada data CIC
dataStatCan
website
Data Liberation
Initiative
Research
Data Centre
Custom
order
Census x x x
Ethnic Diversity Survey (EDS) x x
International Adult Literacy and
Skills Survey (IALSS)
x x
Labour Force Survey (LFS) x x x x
Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to
Canada (LSIC)
x
Permanent Residents Data System /
Landings (IMDB)
x
Survey of Labour and Income
Dynamics (SLID)
x x
Workplace and Employee Survey
(WES)
x

9. Challenges: Reliability
• Sample size
• Definitions
– Immigrants: permanent residents, naturalized
citizens (Census, LFS), temporary foreign
workers, anyone who is not Canadian-born
(WES)

10. Challenges: Availability
• Data not collected
• Data no longer collected
– Census – data from long form questionnaire
won’t be comparable to earlier years
– Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada
– Workplace and Employee Survey

11. Future of TIEDI
• Funding ending in 2011
• Focusing on existing findings vs. creating
new knowledge

12. Maryse Lemoine
mlemoine@yorku.ca
416-736-2100 ext. 22826
www.yorku.ca/tiedi