Very troubling trends, but unsurprising results. These trends have been known for some time, and have been exacerbated by the economic downturn of the last few years. What is the solution? The government should embark on a complete revamping of the immigration program, discard the emphasis on family reunification and concentrate only on immigrants who can demonstrate economic establishment, skills that the economy needs and language ability.
Fraser Institute: Recent Immigrants Not Faring as Well as Those Who Arrived Before 1987, Costing Taxpayers More Than $16 Billion Annually - MarketWatch
Fraser Institute: Recent Immigrants Not Faring as Well as Those Who Arrived Before 1987, Costing Taxpayers More Than $16 Billion Annually
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Mar 15, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Immigrants who arrived in Canada between 1987 and 2004 received about $6,000 more in government services per immigrant in 2005 than they paid in taxes, confirms a new report released today by the Fraser Institute, Canada's leading public policy think-tank.
"Immigrants arriving in Canada since 1987 are not doing as well economically as immigrants who arrived before 1987," said Herbert Grubel, Fraser Institute senior fellow and co-author of Fiscal Transfers to Immigrants in Canada: Responding to Critics and a Revised Estimate.
"As a result of Canada's welfare-state policies, our progressive income taxes, and universal social programs, these immigrants impose a huge fiscal burden on Canadian taxpayers of between $16 billion and $23 billion annually."
The report is an update of a 2011 study by Grubel and co-author Patrick Grady which used publicly available data to estimate that, in 2005, Canada's immigrant selection policies resulted in an average fiscal burden on taxpayers of $6,051 per immigrant who came to Canada between 1987 and 2004, and that the average income of those immigrants was 72 per cent of that of other Canadians.
The study is also a response to research sponsored by the government-funded Metropolis BC Project and carried out by Simon Fraser University economists Mohsen Javdani and Krishna Pendakur who examined the incomes of immigrants who arrived in Canada between 1970 and 2004. They concluded that over this period, immigrants received only $450 more in government services than they paid in taxes and that immigrants' average incomes were 89 per cent of that of other Canadians.
"The main reason for the disparity is that our study looked at immigration data from 1987 to 2004, while Javdani and Pendakur went as far back as 1970," Grubel said.
"According to Statistics Canada, immigrants to Canada pre-1987 had much higher incomes, and thus made higher tax payments, than those who arrived later. Javdani and Pendakur found significantly reduced transfers because these immigrants were more economically successful than the later cohort."
Javdani and Pendakur justified their use of data from this period by claiming that the 1987 to 2004 cohort measured by Grubel and Grady underestimated the true earnings of immigrants since those individuals were younger.
"Newly available research from Statistics Canada shows that the income gap between recent immigrants and other Canadians has been increasing, regardless of gender, education, work experience and, importantly, age," Grady said.
"In other words, the lower incomes and tax payments of recent immigrants relative to those of other Canadians are likely to persist over all stages of their lives, which invalidates Javdani and Pendakur's criticism of our estimates."
Grubel and Grady also reject arguments that immigrants are needed to meet labour shortages, that they bring productivity-increasing economies of scale, and that their children will repay the fiscal burden. New evidence does not provide any grounds for optimism that the children of recent immigrants are going to be able to earn enough to compensate current and future generations of Canadians for the fiscal transfers made to their parents by existing Canadians.
Grubel and Grady conclude that in order to alleviate the fiscal strain on taxpayers, Canada's immigration selection process should be reformed to emphasize a reliance on market forces to replace the existing, failed system of using points to select immigrants. They also present new evidence suggesting that Federal Skilled Worker immigrants who were admitted on the basis of pre-arranged employment offers had much higher incomes than comparable immigrants admitted under previously existing criteria.
"The exclusive use of such job offers would result in a significant decrease, if not elimination, of the fiscal burden that exists under the present immigrant selection system," Grubel said.
The Fraser Institute is an independent research and educational organization with locations across North America and partnerships in more than 80 countries. Its mission is to measure, study, and communicate the impact of competitive markets and government intervention on the welfare of individuals. To protect the Institute's independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit www.fraserinstitute.org .
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Friday, March 16, 2012
Saturday, November 5, 2011
JOBS: CONSTRUCTION LEADS THE WAY ON WAGES, ECONOMIC GROWTH
Jobs in Canada: construction jobs are the ticket to middle class, trends support continuing growth. Immigration should reward those who have a proven track record and good training in trades such as plumbers, electricians, carpenters, and other skilled trades, particularly from the United States and the United Kingdom, with good language skills, certificates that can be easily verified, and previous employment that can be corroborated.
Canada’s hard hat economy a ticket to the middle class Economy News Financial Post
Canada’s hard hat economy a ticket to the middle class Economy News Financial Post
Thursday, October 13, 2011
AMERICANS LOOKING FOR JOBS IN CANADA
I am quoted in today's Globe and Mail story:
Canada new magnet for U.S. job hunters - The Globe and Mail
Canada new magnet for U.S. job hunters
Tavia Grant
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011 6:16PM EDT
Last updated Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011 6:19AM EDT
Canada’s stronger economy is becoming a magnet for Americans hunting for work.
In a reversal of historical flows, immigration lawyers report a surge of calls from Americans who want to move north. Statistics bear out their observations: A record number of Americans applied for temporary work visas last year, Immigration Canada statistics show, spurred largely by the contrasting health of the two countries’ labour markets.
On one side of the border, 14 million Americans are out of work – the equivalent of more than 40 per cent of Canada’s population. On the other side, some employers – particularly in Alberta’s oil sector – say they can’t find enough skilled workers, prompting the country’s federal immigration minister to publicly muse last month on how to admit more skilled Americans.
The U.S. jobless rate is 9.1 per cent while Canada’s comparable rate – adjusted to U.S. concepts – is just 6.3 per cent, statistics released last week show.
“It’s reverse brain drain,” says Toronto-based immigration lawyer Sergio Karas. “There are a lot of disgruntled people who say ‘America is letting me down.’”
He sees several shifts – Canadians who married Americans and live in the U.S. are now returning to Canada because of better job prospects in professional areas like law and finance. And more Americans, from the Northeast and California in particular, are setting their sights on Canada for its work opportunities and other factors such as affordable health care, a stronger banking system and stable housing market.
Paul DeJoe is one of them. The 29-year-old tried for years to drum up interest in his business idea in Philadelphia to no avail. He moved to Vancouver this summer to participate in an incubator program that focuses on Internet startups. He says there’s a bigger flow of ideas, and more seed money, available to them now that they’re based in Canada.
“It looks like we will become a Canadian company – we have access to a bunch more opportunities. And it’s really nice here and we’ve had a great experience thus far,” says Mr. DeJoe, founder of Ecquire, which provides software that helps users eliminate data entry.
Canada’s stability is increasingly on the global radar. Last week, Forbes magazine named it as the best place in the world to do business. In the lead-up to every presidential election, “countless Americans threaten to move to Canada if their preferred candidate does not emerge victorious. Of course, few follow through with a move north,” it noted. “Maybe it is time to reconsider.”
Windsor, Ont.-based immigration lawyer Drew Porter is also seeing history reverse itself. He is fielding more calls from high-net-worth Americans who are worried their taxes are set to rise. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years now, and always the calls were from people that did well in Canada and wanted to move to the U.S. to increase their standard of living and minimize their income taxes,” he says. “It’s quite noteworthy to me that now I’m getting calls from the U.S. interested in Canada for the same reasons.”
A typical caller is from a rural setting, who is a higher earner and interested in preserving their net worth and concerned about potential tax hikes, he says. Still, he notes, many callers are misinformed about the ease of coming to Canada and are soon deterred by red tape.
Luring skilled American workers to Canada is on the federal government’s radar, as well. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney recently noted Canada could do more to tap into America’s skilled labour market.
“We are looking at ways … that we could do a better job of accessing unemployed American labour,” he told the Calgary Chamber of Commerce last month. “We think particularly in the energy industry, that might be a significant solution to some of the emerging labour market shortages.”
The U.S. has ranked first among homelands for temporary foreign workers in Canada since 2008. Last year, the number of American citizens applying for temporary work permits doubled to 4,024, from 1,974 applications in 2008.
Judith Jones is mulling the move. The New York resident is no stranger to Canada – she lived in Toronto before returning to work in the U.S. in 1995.
She held a variety of jobs in the financial sector until her job at Deutsche Bank’s compliance department evaporated in 2008. Since then, she has struggled to find work in the sector that matches her 23 years of experience, and has watched her salary dwindle.
“Most of us in the financial industry who did banking like I did, we never expected Wall Street to crash,” she says. “I’ve since found out Canada did not have the recession we did to nearly to the same extent, and has better regulations. Unlike the U.S., you didn’t play around with the mortgage industry. That’s why it’s so attractive.”
She’s still healthy at age 47, but said Canada’s health care is another attraction as she sets her sights north.
She’s not alone. Last month, a New York radio segment on Looking for Work in Canada on The Brian Lehrer Show was flooded with calls and featured comparisons of the two countries’ banking systems, employment situation and health-care systems.
New York’s office of the state comptroller forecast this week that the city could lose almost 10,000 additional jobs by the end of next year, which would bring total job losses in the securities sector to 32,000 since the start of 2008.
By contrast, total global employment by Canadian banks hit a record of more than 360,000 last year, while the lobby group the Toronto Financial Service Alliance is holding a career fair in New York this month to attract top American talent.
Philip Turner isn’t packing his bags yet – but he is gearing his business more towards Canada. The book publisher is based in New York, and has long brought Canadian books, by authors such as Margaret Atwood and Mordecai Richler, to the U.S. market. Now, he is making more business trips to Toronto to drum up business.
“I am trying to develop business in Canada with Canadians,” he says. “There is a little more buzz in Canada right now than is the case here.”
_____________________
LOOKING FOR WORK
It’s not just Americans who are looking with envy at Canada’s comparatively stable economy.
Greeks and Irish too are vying to move to Canada amid dim job prospects in their own countries, according to immigration lawyers.
“I don’t speak Greek, but I am getting phone calls right now, and I think it’s going to intensify as the situation is only going to get worse,” says Toronto-based lawyer Sergio Karas.
In Windsor, Ont., lawyer Drew Porter says he has had “an awful lot of calls from Ireland over the past year-and-a-half.”
The number of temporary work applicants from Ireland nearly doubled between 2007 and 2010 and more than doubled from Spain, according to Immigration Canada. It has dwindled from Greece – however the numbers don’t capture activity this year.
Canada new magnet for U.S. job hunters - The Globe and Mail
Canada new magnet for U.S. job hunters
Tavia Grant
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011 6:16PM EDT
Last updated Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011 6:19AM EDT
Canada’s stronger economy is becoming a magnet for Americans hunting for work.
In a reversal of historical flows, immigration lawyers report a surge of calls from Americans who want to move north. Statistics bear out their observations: A record number of Americans applied for temporary work visas last year, Immigration Canada statistics show, spurred largely by the contrasting health of the two countries’ labour markets.
On one side of the border, 14 million Americans are out of work – the equivalent of more than 40 per cent of Canada’s population. On the other side, some employers – particularly in Alberta’s oil sector – say they can’t find enough skilled workers, prompting the country’s federal immigration minister to publicly muse last month on how to admit more skilled Americans.
The U.S. jobless rate is 9.1 per cent while Canada’s comparable rate – adjusted to U.S. concepts – is just 6.3 per cent, statistics released last week show.
“It’s reverse brain drain,” says Toronto-based immigration lawyer Sergio Karas. “There are a lot of disgruntled people who say ‘America is letting me down.’”
He sees several shifts – Canadians who married Americans and live in the U.S. are now returning to Canada because of better job prospects in professional areas like law and finance. And more Americans, from the Northeast and California in particular, are setting their sights on Canada for its work opportunities and other factors such as affordable health care, a stronger banking system and stable housing market.
Paul DeJoe is one of them. The 29-year-old tried for years to drum up interest in his business idea in Philadelphia to no avail. He moved to Vancouver this summer to participate in an incubator program that focuses on Internet startups. He says there’s a bigger flow of ideas, and more seed money, available to them now that they’re based in Canada.
“It looks like we will become a Canadian company – we have access to a bunch more opportunities. And it’s really nice here and we’ve had a great experience thus far,” says Mr. DeJoe, founder of Ecquire, which provides software that helps users eliminate data entry.
Canada’s stability is increasingly on the global radar. Last week, Forbes magazine named it as the best place in the world to do business. In the lead-up to every presidential election, “countless Americans threaten to move to Canada if their preferred candidate does not emerge victorious. Of course, few follow through with a move north,” it noted. “Maybe it is time to reconsider.”
Windsor, Ont.-based immigration lawyer Drew Porter is also seeing history reverse itself. He is fielding more calls from high-net-worth Americans who are worried their taxes are set to rise. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years now, and always the calls were from people that did well in Canada and wanted to move to the U.S. to increase their standard of living and minimize their income taxes,” he says. “It’s quite noteworthy to me that now I’m getting calls from the U.S. interested in Canada for the same reasons.”
A typical caller is from a rural setting, who is a higher earner and interested in preserving their net worth and concerned about potential tax hikes, he says. Still, he notes, many callers are misinformed about the ease of coming to Canada and are soon deterred by red tape.
Luring skilled American workers to Canada is on the federal government’s radar, as well. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney recently noted Canada could do more to tap into America’s skilled labour market.
“We are looking at ways … that we could do a better job of accessing unemployed American labour,” he told the Calgary Chamber of Commerce last month. “We think particularly in the energy industry, that might be a significant solution to some of the emerging labour market shortages.”
The U.S. has ranked first among homelands for temporary foreign workers in Canada since 2008. Last year, the number of American citizens applying for temporary work permits doubled to 4,024, from 1,974 applications in 2008.
Judith Jones is mulling the move. The New York resident is no stranger to Canada – she lived in Toronto before returning to work in the U.S. in 1995.
She held a variety of jobs in the financial sector until her job at Deutsche Bank’s compliance department evaporated in 2008. Since then, she has struggled to find work in the sector that matches her 23 years of experience, and has watched her salary dwindle.
“Most of us in the financial industry who did banking like I did, we never expected Wall Street to crash,” she says. “I’ve since found out Canada did not have the recession we did to nearly to the same extent, and has better regulations. Unlike the U.S., you didn’t play around with the mortgage industry. That’s why it’s so attractive.”
She’s still healthy at age 47, but said Canada’s health care is another attraction as she sets her sights north.
She’s not alone. Last month, a New York radio segment on Looking for Work in Canada on The Brian Lehrer Show was flooded with calls and featured comparisons of the two countries’ banking systems, employment situation and health-care systems.
New York’s office of the state comptroller forecast this week that the city could lose almost 10,000 additional jobs by the end of next year, which would bring total job losses in the securities sector to 32,000 since the start of 2008.
By contrast, total global employment by Canadian banks hit a record of more than 360,000 last year, while the lobby group the Toronto Financial Service Alliance is holding a career fair in New York this month to attract top American talent.
Philip Turner isn’t packing his bags yet – but he is gearing his business more towards Canada. The book publisher is based in New York, and has long brought Canadian books, by authors such as Margaret Atwood and Mordecai Richler, to the U.S. market. Now, he is making more business trips to Toronto to drum up business.
“I am trying to develop business in Canada with Canadians,” he says. “There is a little more buzz in Canada right now than is the case here.”
_____________________
LOOKING FOR WORK
It’s not just Americans who are looking with envy at Canada’s comparatively stable economy.
Greeks and Irish too are vying to move to Canada amid dim job prospects in their own countries, according to immigration lawyers.
“I don’t speak Greek, but I am getting phone calls right now, and I think it’s going to intensify as the situation is only going to get worse,” says Toronto-based lawyer Sergio Karas.
In Windsor, Ont., lawyer Drew Porter says he has had “an awful lot of calls from Ireland over the past year-and-a-half.”
The number of temporary work applicants from Ireland nearly doubled between 2007 and 2010 and more than doubled from Spain, according to Immigration Canada. It has dwindled from Greece – however the numbers don’t capture activity this year.
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