QUEBEC LAGS IN IMMIGRANT EMPLOYMENT

Choose Ontario, Alberta or BC....not Quebec. A factor not discussed in the article are Quebec's high taxes, which stunt economic growth, and the fact that its immigration policies are geared to favour French-speaking immigrants, even though they may not necessarily have the right skills for the economy.


Quebec told to help integrate immigrants

High unemployment

Nicolas Van Praet, Financial Post

MONTREAL - Quebec, Canada's most indebted province, has a major problem integrating newcomers into the workforce and desperately needs to solve it ahead of a looming labour shortage, according to new research by a university research group.
The level of immigrant workforce integration is barely half of what it is in other provinces, the findings by Montreal's Center for Interuniversity Research and Analysis on Organizations show. In 2006, the employment rate of immigrants in Quebec was 11.4 percentage points below that of native-born Canadians living in Quebec. The gap is much smaller in the rest of Canada: five points in Ontario, 5.1 points in B.C. and 4.9 points for Canada as a whole.
"The situation of immigrants in the workforce is more problematic in Quebec than in the other provinces of Canada," said research authors Brahim Boudarbat and Maude Boulet. "Nevertheless, Quebec stands out for its hands-on involvement with immigration, giving a special urgency to understanding the reasons why Quebec is straggling."
The labour issue is crucial because the province will soon experience one of the world's most dramatic population changes.
The Institut de la Statistique du Quebec forecasts that beginning in 2013, Quebec will experience a decline in the absolute size of the working-age population, those aged 15 to 64. As a result, the number of workers per retired person will fall to 3.7 in 2016 and 2.6 in 2026 from 4.5 this year.
By comparison, Ontario and the United States will experience an increase in the number of potential workers because their demography is more "robust," a committee of experts advising Quebec ahead of its recent budget concluded. In 1971, Quebec had a ratio of working people to retirees that was double today's level.
Quebec has to boost its labour market participation to meet that challenge, and to help tackle its $150-billion debt, the experts warned. As of last March, gross debt accounted for 50% of its gross domestic product compared with 30% in Ontario and just over 24% in the rest of Canada.
"Beginning in 2015, Quebec's demographic profile will reduce expected economic growth," the advisory committee said in its first report. "If nothing is done, the gains expected from labour market participation and productivity will not be sufficient to maintain economic growth at the level of the last 30 years."
The failure to integrate immigrants into the workforce comes at a time when newcomers have never been more educated. More than half of immigrants aged 25 and over who arrived in Quebec in 2006 had at least a bachelor's degree, the university research found. In 1981, barely 15% had such education.
New immigrants are also more fluent in French than before, with 60% of those arriving in 2008 speaking the language.
The research found that integrating into Quebec's market is highly dependent on where immigrants come from, where they obtain their degrees, and their age when they arrive.
At nearly 19%, immigrants from North Africa and South Asia experienced the highest unemployment in Quebec in 2006, the researchers said. At the other extreme, those from the United States and Western Europe posted higher employment.