Visible minority of person

Status: This was the departmental standard from October 19, 2015 to August 24, 2021.

Definition

Visible minority refers to whether a person belongs to a visible minority group as defined by the Employment Equity Act and, if so, the visible minority group to which the person belongs. The Employment Equity Act defines visible minorities as "persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour". The visible minority population consists mainly of the following groups: South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Latin American, Arab, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Korean and Japanese.

Person refers to an individual and is the unit of analysis for most social statistics programs.

Derivation

Visible minority is derived from responses to the Population group and Aboriginal group questions, and is defined for federal employment equity purposes.

Aboriginal persons are classified in the category "Not a visible minority". All others are classified according to their responses to the Population group question, as follows.

The "South Asian" category includes persons who gave a mark-in response of "South Asian" only or "South Asian" and "White" only. This category also includes persons with no mark-in responses who gave a write-in response classified as "South Asian".

The "Chinese" category includes persons who gave a mark-in response of "Chinese" only or "Chinese" and "White" only. This category also includes persons with no mark-in responses who gave a write-in response classified as "Chinese".

The "Black" category includes persons who gave a mark-in response of "Black" only or "Black" and "White" only. This category also includes persons with no mark-in responses who gave a write-in response classified as "Black".

The "Filipino" category includes persons who gave a mark-in response of "Filipino" only or "Filipino" and "White" only. This category also includes persons with no mark-in responses who gave a write-in response classified as "Filipino".

The "Latin American" category includes persons who gave a mark-in response of "Latin American" only, as well as persons who gave a mark-in response of "Latin American" only with a non-European write-in response. This category also includes persons with no mark-in responses who gave a write-in response classified as "Latin American".

The "Arab" category includes persons who gave a mark-in response of "Arab" only, as well as persons who gave a mark-in response of "Arab" only with a non-European write-in response. This category also includes persons with no mark-in responses who gave a write-in response classified as "Arab".

The "Southeast Asian" category includes persons who gave a mark-in response of "Southeast Asian" only or "Southeast Asian" and "White" only. This category also includes persons with no mark-in responses who gave a write-in response classified as "Southeast Asian".

The "West Asian" category includes persons who gave a mark-in response of "West Asian" only, as well as persons who gave a mark-in response of "West Asian" only with a non-European write-in response. This category also includes persons with no mark-in responses who gave a write-in response classified as "West Asian".

The "Korean" category includes persons who gave a mark-in response of "Korean" only or "Korean" and "White" only. This category also includes persons with no mark-in responses who gave a write-in response classified as "Korean".

The "Japanese" category includes persons who gave a mark-in response of "Japanese" only or "Japanese" and "White" only. This category also includes persons with no mark-in responses who gave a write-in response classified as "Japanese".

The "Visible minority, n.i.e." category includes persons with no mark-in response who gave a write-in response that is classified as visible minority, but cannot be classified with a specific visible minority group. This includes responses such as "Guyanese," "West Indian," "Tibetan," "Polynesian," and "Pacific Islander".

The "Multiple visible minorities" category includes persons who gave more than one visible minority mark-in response (e.g., "Black" and "South Asian").

The "Not a visible minority" category includes persons who gave a mark-in response of "White" only; persons who gave mark-in responses of "White and Latin American", "White and Arab" or "White and West Asian" only; persons who gave a mark-in response of Latin American, Arab, or West Asian only, along with a European write-in response; and persons with no mark-in response who gave a write-in response that is not classified as a visible minority. As indicated previously, this category also includes Aboriginal persons.

Conformity to relevant internationally recognized standards

There are no comparable internationally recognized standards since this variable measures a concept that is defined in Canadian legislation, specifically, the Employment Equity Act.

Classifications

Additional information

See:

Relation to previous version

  • Visible minority of person August 25, 2021 to current

    The derivation of the categories in the variable has been revised slightly, placing more emphasis on the write-in responses of respondents. This is not expected to noticeably impact the historical comparability of the variable.

  • Visible minority of person October 19, 2015 to August 24, 2021

    This standard has been updated by moving the category derivations from the classification to the main derivation note.

  • Visible minority of person June 15, 2009 to October 18, 2015

    This standard is compatible with the previous standard except that Arab and West Asian are now separate categories whereas previously they were combined.

  • Visible minority July 15, 1998 to June 14, 2009

    This was the departmental standard from July 15, 1998 to June 14, 2009.

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