IMMIGRANTS AND UNEMPLOYMENT IN CANADA

This article appeared in the Globe and Mail (see link below) .

Commentary:

It is disturbing but not surprising: for the past decade, even at the height of the economic boom, new immigrants have failed to keep pace with native born in income and employment, swelling the unemployment ranks and adding to the staggering number who are underemployed. Governments have already spent billions to change this, with no success. Why?

A few facts shown over time: first, half of our immigrants are not self-selected, but rather sponsored relatives or refugees, who typically are deficient in their skills or in official language ability. Inability to speak English or French has been shown in many studies to constitute the biggest barrier to landing a good job. Second, immigrants who claim that they had a great job in their country may be right, but what they do not realize is that they operate in a much more competitive environment in Canada, where their skills are measured against those of local graduates with local experience, and that is an uphill battle for them in an economy generating fewer jobs where local grads abound. Third, employers are motivated by profit, not by altruistic goals, so they will chose a candidate who will be the most productive with the shortest learning curve and no one can fault them for that. Fourth, some immigrants have unrealistic expectations about the Canadian labour market, due to a romanticized idea of "hard work equals success", which is not necessarily so. Fifth, some immigrants expect too much government help, and given their lack of understanding of a free market economy, they expect the government to generate the opportunities they cannot find in the private sector. In addition, many immigrants have non-portable skills and their degrees are not comparable to those in Canada or the US. Last, cultural differences can not be ignored, and they play a factor in both hiring and ability to do a job in a team setting.

The government and the country could be much better served by adjusting its immigration policy to the economic realities: if we need mining engineers, let's not bring psychologists....if we require nurses, let's mot waste resources processing communications majors....and so on...Common sense will help the country for the future, the economy and produce happier immigrants who have jobs and can integrate successfully. Also, more emphasis should be placed on bringing entrepreneurial immigrants with capital and know-how to invest and create not only their own jobs, but also jobs for others.


Jobless rate up for Toronto immigrants - The Globe and Mail