Today, Canada, faced with the globalization of economies and the population aging, is calling on more and more immigrants, especially skilled workers, to fill a significant proportion of jobs. This research, which analyzes the social and economic integration of newcomers under the skilled worker category, focuses on the immigrants from China who break with searching for employment in their field of training or experience and who acquire an entrepreneurial profile in the labor market after arriving in French-speaking Canada, specifically in Quebec City and its surrounding.
This article is part of the results of my thesis in Ethnology and Heritage Program of Laval University (Quebec, Canada,2020). It is based on qualitative research which was conducted with 20 Chinese entrepreneurs (Nowadays, they operate grocery stores, hotels, acupuncture clinics, restaurants, etc. in Quebec city). However, in their country of departure, they were elites in various industries such as sport, telecommunication, science research, education, etc.
The article aims to know the labor market integration of Chinese skilled immigrants in small and medium-sized Canadian cities, their career plannings and their own reflection on the entrepreneurial choice. It also takes deep dives into their networks which help them to seize their business opportunities and the impact of occupational choice on their social integration as well as on their space of sociability in the host society. In order to shed light on the reality experienced by these Chinese immigrants, interviews and life stories are retained as research methods.
