Immigrants better trained, worse off

[camedia]

Immigrants better trained, worse off


NICHOLAS KEUNG
IMMIGRATION/DIVERSITY REPORTER

Today's foreign-trained immigrants are better educated than native-born Canadians, yet they're having a tougher time finding the work they're trained to do, and their incomes are falling further and further behind.

In 1980, the average newly arrived immigrant man earned about 80 per cent of the average Canadian's salary; 20 years later, he's earning only 60 per cent as much.

He's also more likely to be unemployed, even at a menial job: In 1980, 86.3 per cent of immigrant men were employed, compared with 91 per cent of Canadians. By 2000, only 68.3 per cent of newcomers had jobs, versus 85.4 per cent of the native-born.

Those figures come from a new study by Jeffrey Reitz, published by the Montreal-based Institute for Research on Public Policy, which suggests that Canada needs to break down the barriers blocking immigrants from working in the well-paid careers they trained for overseas — or risk a backlash against immigration spurred by the economic drain of thousands of underemployed newcomers.

Narrowing the income-employment gap has become a matter of increasing urgency, and the province is gradually doing something about it. Yesterday Queen's Park released a progress report on its efforts to help the 130,000 immigrants who come to Ontario each year, 90,000 of whom arrive with a university degree or a skilled trade.

While Ottawa guards the door to the country, it falls to the provinces to govern the licensing of many professions and trades — 38 in Ontario alone.

Last year nurses, pharmacists, teachers, engineers, midwives, physicians, electricians and millwrights got help picking up their old professions from provincially funded programs — but only 4,400 of them. Last week, the province announced it would add 15 new programs to the mix, gradually broadening opportunities.

Jawad Naseer, 30, who came to Canada from Afghanistan in May 2003, was among the lucky few last year. He knew his nursing skills were needed in Canada, but had no idea how to navigate through "the system." After completing the six-month Creating Access to Regulated Employment (CARE) for Nurses Program, he got his licence from the College of Nurses of Ontario in January and is set to relaunch his career.

CARE is one of 23 provincially funded career-bridging programs highlighted in Ontario's first report card on its efforts to help foreign-trained professionals find a place in the work force. Since 2001, it has helped 320 nurses become certified in Ontario.

Underemployed and unemployed foreign-trained skilled immigrants who don't get that kind of help represent a loss of economic growth and may burden Canada's social safety net, according to Reitz's policy study, which is based on Statistics Canada data.

That could create a backlash, Reitz, director of ethnic, immigration and pluralism studies at the University of Toronto, writes in Tapping Immigrants' Skills: New Directions for Canadian Immigration Policy in the Knowledge Economy, published yesterday.

"Denied work in the knowledge occupations and experiencing greater educational competition in lower-level work, immigrants often wind up in the least-skilled occupations," Reitz writes.

While skilled jobs go unfilled, this vicious circle also creates heightened competition for even menial jobs.

"Immigrants living in poverty could create pressures — or at least the perception of pressures — on the social safety net. This could lead, in turn, to public demands for a reduction in social programs and other support for immigrants," Reitz says.

"We can expect public perceptions of immigrants as a liability or social problem to become more widespread."

Canada's emphasis on points-based immigrant selection and ever-higher educational standards "is not having the desired impact," the study says.

In Ontario, the job of bridging the gap between policy and reality has fallen in part to Training, Colleges and Universities Minister Mary Anne Chambers.

"I think the biggest challenge for our newcomers remains the Canadian work experience, because once people are licensed or certified, they still need a job," Chambers says.

She spoke at a news conference unveiling the Opening Doors: An Investment in Prosperity "report card," which sets up benchmarks to measure how well professions are opening up to foreign-trained immigrants.

The report shows the percentage of foreign-trained registrants in each of the province's regulated professions. An update next year will show which professions are doing a good job at integrating people with overseas qualifications. The report also summarizes "career-bridging" programs available to immigrants who, like Naseer, are trying to resume a career they left behind.

[DrJack]

Immigrants better trained, worse off

"I think the biggest challenge for our newcomers remains the Canadian work experience, because once people are licensed or certified, they still need a job," Chambers says.

Sto ne si kajat prostacite napravo za kakvo stava vupros......

[ivandi]

In 1980, the average newly arrived immigrant man earned about 80 per cent of the average Canadian's salary; 20 years later, he's earning only 60 per cent as much.

Ne znam kak e v Montreal, no tuk dosta kebekari rabotiat za zaplata blizka do minimalnata. Taka che varianta da predlojish da rabotish za po niska zaplata otpada.

"I think the biggest challenge for our newcomers remains the Canadian work experience, because once people are licensed or certified, they still need a job," Chambers says.

V momenta sam v programa za vlizane v injenerskia order. Vse edno karam MEI-to ot nachalo, s tazi razlika, che sega cheta kato lud. Samo deto ne znam kakav e smisala, zastoto za vsichki pozicii kadeto se iziskva order, se iziskvat i 5-10g. staj, estestveno canadski.

"Denied work in the knowledge occupations and experiencing greater educational competition in lower-level work, immigrants often wind up in the least-skilled occupations," Reitz writes.

Kakto kazva edin poznat: karash magistar, doctorat, post-doctorat i nakraia vzemash edin DEP, che da imash shans da pochnesh rabota