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Race and Retail: Who we don't see working in shops in Nova Scotia, Canada - Hosted by Dr Hazel Conley (CRED)

22 October 2014

Time: 1:00 - 2:00pm
Venue: Mile End Campus, Bancroft Building, Room 4.04/08

Speaker and affiliation

Dr Judy Haiven, Associate Professor, Department of Management, Saint Mary's University, Nova Scotia , Canada

Seminar title

Race and Retail: Who we don't see working in shops in Nova Scotia, Canada
 

Why this talk is of interest to SBM’s research community?

Visible minorities face discrimination in employment in Canada, and in the UK.  Even in the retail sector which is traditionally low paid and offers only casual hours, African Nova Scotians have faced barriers to employment.  This is despite the fact that African-Nova Scotians are not immigrants-- their ancestors settled in NS 250 years ago.  This talk will interest researchers who study low paid workers, immigrant workers and the retail sector.
 

Abstract

What is the reason that African Nova Scotians are under-represented in retail sales positions in Halifax? Literature suggests that despite the fact that retail sales jobs form the bulk of entry-level positions, these jobs are not available to African Nova Scotians.  
As Canada’s economy moves increasingly toward a service-based model, more than 1.8 million Canadians work in the retail sector, making it the largest employment sector in the country.  So it stands to reason that retail employers, across the board, should be employing black Nova Scotians in numbers appropriate to their demographic representation.  But the facts say otherwise. 
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