The majority of refugees are children and youth and their integration and life-course transitions are a research priority. This paper examines the timing of refugee children and youths’ entrance into the labour market and family formation (marriage/common law union and parenthood). It does so by examining how admission category, knowledge of a host country’s official languages, and age at arrival shape their transition to adulthood. Using data from the Canadian Longitudinal Immigration Database and Heckman selection estimation, the paper finds minimal variation in refugee children and youths’ entry into the labour market compared to children of other immigrant streams. It also finds that refugee children and youth start forming families at a younger age than children of economic class immigrants, but at an older age than family class children. The analysis also shows limited effects of knowledge of official language prior to arrival while age at arrival has a robust impact on their adulthood transitions. These findings shed light on the unique patterns of life-course transition among refugee children and youth and contribute to a better conceptualization of their experiences relative to children and youth of other immigrants.

中文翻译：

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加拿大难民和移民儿童向成年期的过渡

大多数难民是儿童和青年，他们的融合和生命历程转变是研究重点。本文研究了难民儿童和青少年进入劳动力市场和家庭形成（婚姻/普通法联盟和父母身份）的时机。它通过检查入学类别、东道国官方语言知识和抵达年龄如何影响他们向成年期的过渡来做到这一点。使用加拿大纵向移民数据库和赫克曼选择估计的数据，该论文发现与其他移民流的儿童相比，难民儿童和青年进入劳动力市场的差异很小。它还发现，难民儿童和青年开始组建家庭的年龄比经济阶层移民的孩子小，但比家庭阶层的孩子大。分析还显示，抵达前的官方语言知识影响有限，而抵达时的年龄对其成年过渡有很大影响。这些发现揭示了难民儿童和青年生命历程转变的独特模式，并有助于更好地概念化他们相对于其他移民的儿童和青年的经历。