DO IMMIGRANT NEW MOTHERS USE MATERNITY AND PARENTAL LEAVE BENEFIT DIFFERENTLY FROM NATIVE NEW MOTHERS? EVIDENCE FROM CANADA

Abstract

The main research question in this thesis is do immigrant new mothers use maternity and parental leave benefit differently from native new mothers. I use Employment Insurance Coverage Survey micro data from 2000 to 2009 and fixed effect models to investigate the different weeks taken by new mothers and the different amount of benefits received during the leave period between immigrant new mothers and native new mothers. The results in my thesis show that immigrant new mothers received lower amount of benefit during the leave than native new mothers. There are no significant differences by the duration of the leave have taken between immigrant and native new mothers. I also find that the higher education a new mother received before they were pregnant, the higher benefit amount they could receive.