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AbstractResearchers have long posited that immigrant social structures play an important role in the settlement and adaptation of immigrants in most host countries, including Canada. Recent studies report that immigrant organizations can have divergent effects on the economic outcomes of the communities they serve. However the topic has yet to be addressed adequately for lack of systematic information on immigrant organizations. This article proposes to partially fill this gap by measuring the impact of several new variables drawn from infrequently used, but readily available administrative data collected by the Canadian government on three census labour market variables: income, unemployment, and self‐employment. This addresses a specific part of the labour market impact of immigrant social structures: the role of officially recognized charitable organizations serving specific ethno‐immigrant communities in fostering their labour market integration. The results of descriptive analysis and regression models show that organizational density is positively associated with self‐employment and negatively associated with income and unemployment.

By most measures, French labor is among the weakest in the industrialized world. Yet it has retained a high level of mobilizing and institutional power. This unusual position is partly due to the historical role of labor courts, one of France's oldest and most influential labor institutions. Based on a range of historical and contemporary evidence, this article shows that the involvement of the state and labor in these courts over the past two centuries has played a crucial role in the evolution of French industrial relations. This process unfolded along three main dimensions: the early establishment of labor courts strongly and durably influenced the mobilization patterns of the emergent labor movement, France's labor relations model was largely inspired by the judicialism embedded in labor courts, and a combination of more contingent events led to the emergence of a problematic notion of union"representativeness." These patterns have contributed to shape French labor into its present condition of both weakness and strength.

Abstract Traditional perspectives on ethnic institutions tend to consider mainly their role in the preservation of the cultural and social fabric of ethnic communities. Increasing evidence indicates that ethno‐institutional effects are often more varied and complex. France's first industrial‐era immigrants, massively crossing the border from Belgian Flanders during the second half of the 19th century, are a case in point. Immigrant Flemish workers introduced a new type of institution to the French working class: socialist cooperatives. These would have a long‐term impact not only on the immigrant Flemish community itself, but also on the larger labour movement, on the region, and on the country as a whole. Three elements were important in this process of institutional cross‐fertilization: Belgian workers' rich institutional repertoire; the coincidence of their settlement with the rise of the French labour movement; and the fact that their institutional innovation was easily transferable.

Examines the experiences of Haitian teachers in Montreal, Quebec, where the large Haitian population has created unique challenges for public schools. Arguments for & against culturally congruent education are discussed, & two programs designed to provide a Haitian-focused learning environment by emphasizing the role of Haitian teachers are described. In-depth interviews conducted in 1995 with 13 Haitian-origin teachers, well informed about issues related to improving the educational experience of Haitian students, indicate that, although these teachers pointed out the harm that can result from misunderstandings of Haitian culture, they did not see mainstream schooling as a racist barrier to minority students. In fact, most respondents favored a universalistic approach to education, but viewed culturally appropriate teaching methods as an integral part of it. They perceived their role with Haitian students as primarily a motivational one aimed at helping students achieve success in mainstream institutions. Struggles involved in trying to balance a sense of communal obligation with a personal identity as a professional educator are examined. 42 References. J. Lindroth