The Conference on Employment Diversity was jointly organized by the Quebec inter-University Centre for Social Statistics (QICSS) and the Chaire de recherche sur l’intégration et la gestion des diversités en emploi (CRIDE). Aline Lechaume and Charles Fleury (Université Laval) are the co-organizers of this conference.

The Conference was an opportunity to give a voice to researchers who use social statistics to document the evolution of the situation of people from diverse employment backgrounds in Quebec and Canada.

The labour market situation of people from diverse backgrounds appears to remain less favourable than that of the general population, despite the implementation of various policies to address the problem, including equal access programs. Some more marginalized or vulnerable groups face lower employment rates, have lower incomes, or are over-represented in low-skilled or precarious jobs.

But what do the available statistics tell us about this? Does the situation seem to be deteriorating or improving? How does Quebec compare with other Canadian provinces? Are some diversity groups doing better than others? Do the available data allow us to find reliable monitoring indicators that would allow us to explore avenues for intervention? What are the limitations of this data?

October 29, 2019
Pre-conference training "Research issues and data"

This training day was intended for university students at the graduate level, and more broadly for people interested in better understanding the specificities of research on people from diverse backgrounds based on social statistics. This day addressed various themes, including available data sources, issues related to small samples and ethical issues. Its objectives were to make known the range of statistical data available for the study of employment diversity and to raise awareness of the methodological challenges and ethical issues related to the use of data to study these populations. The program included workshops facilitated by experts from Statistics Canada and the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Solidarity.

October 30-31, 2019
Conference "Employment Diversity - Perspectives and Issues in Quebec and Canada"

This conference aimed to promote the use and contribution of social statistics in the study of the issue of employment diversity in Quebec and Canada in its many facets: immigrants or members of visible or cultural minorities, people with physical, intellectual or mental health disabilities, Aboriginal people, youth, women, sexual minorities, or older workers. These themes will be presented by Canadian and European researchers from different disciplines (sociology, industrial relations, economics, political science, etc.) in the field of social statistics whose work focuses on the integration and management of diversity in employment, and will focus on the training of university students.

The conference program was organized around five main themes: immigration, age, indigenousness, gender, physical or intellectual disabilities. The program included two renowned guest speakers: Jean-François Chanlat (PhD, sociology), expert in intercultural management, and Michel Mercier (PhD, psychology), specialist in the employment integration of people with disabilities.


CIRANO was a sponsor of this event. Several CIRANO researchers and Fellows were participating in the conference, including Ali Béjaoui (Université du Québec en Outaouais), Charles Bellemare (Université Laval), Maude Boulet (École nationale d'administration publique), Raquel Fonseca (Industrial Alliance Chair on the Economic Issues of Demographic Change and Université du Québec à Montréal) and Mircea Vultur (Université Laval).


Event Website