Education, not just immigration, key to skill shortage
problem: college association
tamara baluja
Ottawa— Globe and Mail Update
Published Tuesday, Feb. 07, 2012 12:10PM EST
Last week, university presidents descended on Parliament Hill to discuss Canada’s innovation
agenda with parliamentarians. This week, it’s the turn of the 61 principals from colleges,
institutes and polytechnics across Canada to discuss the country’s advanced skills shortage.
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The dual pressures of Canada’s demographic deficit and increasing technological sophistication
of the workplace means that in a decade, employers won’t be able to fill the 1.5 million available
jobs with qualified candidates, said James Knight, president and CEO of the Association of
Canadian Community Colleges.
“And colleges should be a part of that discussion,” Mr. Knight said. “Many university graduates
come to colleges after they finish their degrees to get workplace skills.”
In his speech at Davos last month, Prime Minister Harper spoke of the need to prepare for
demographic pressures before it reached a crisis point, and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney
has been working on significant reforms to the immigration system for several months, with an
increased emphasis on economic immigrants.
But Mr. Knight cautioned that immigration alone with not solve Canada’s skilled labour
shortage.
“To meet these challenges, we’ll have to engage our marginalized communities and find ways to
partner with them … like improving the educational achievements of Aboriginals, disabled, poor
immigrants,” Mr. Knight said, adding that he has also had a discussion with Assembly of First
Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo.
Mr. Knight would also like to see a boost in federal funds for applied research and development
invested in postsecondary education that goes towards colleges. As of now, only 1.25 per cent of
$2.9-billion in federal money reaches colleges, he said, with the lion’s share going to universities
and research hospitals. He would like to see the figure climb to five per cent and says he has
been getting positive signs from parliamentarians of an oncoming change.
“Is it going to happen in this budget? Well, we’ve been hearing that if there is any sector that
would receive any attention, it would be ours.”
Media Release
ACCC: College Presidents on Parliament Hill
Ottawa, February 6, 2012 – Sixty-one presidents of colleges, institutes and polytechnics from across
Canada began a series of meetings today in Ottawa. One hundred ministers, senior officials, MPs and
Senators have accepted ACCC’s invitation to engage in dialogue on Canada’s advanced skills shortage.
The twin pressures of Canada’s demographic deficit and the increasing technological sophistication of the
workplace mean that in ten years, employers will not be able to identify qualified candidates for 1,500,000
available jobs, even with immigration. Seventy percent of new jobs now require the advanced skills
associated with post-secondary credentials. As a result, many sectors are already unable to fill open
positions, despite rising unemployment.
Speaking in Davos, Prime Minister Harper spoke to the need to prepare for demographic pressures now.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney recently announced the Government’s plan to make immigration
easier for persons with skills.
“While this welcome move will relieve some of the pressure employers are experiencing, the challenges
will grow more severe as baby boomers retire. The first baby boomer turned 65 in 2011,” said James
Knight, President and CEO of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges.
“To meet the challenges head on, we must find ways to equip our traditionally marginalized populations
with the skills needed to succeed in our economy. We must improve the educational achievement of
Aboriginal peoples, poor immigrants, the disabled and others who do not typically achieve post-secondary
success. This is a whole-of-society challenge.”
ACCC is hosting these meetings to share insights and ideas on these key matters and to begin largescale planning focused on the role of Canada’s colleges in averting the full effect of a skills shortage,
before it is too late.
“With 1,000 campuses and learning centres across the country, ACCC’s 150 member colleges are the
best fit for partnering with the Government of Canada to ensure that all Canadians are equipped with the
skills required to contribute to and enjoy our standard of living,” Knight concluded.
For more information, contact:
Rosemary Lafrenière
Manager, Communications and Information Services
ACCC
Tel: (613) 746-2222 ext 3123
Email: rlafreniere@accc.ca
Economy Lab
Should Canada's immigrants play by Australian rules?
frances woolley
Globe and Mail
Posted on Tuesday, February 7, 2012 8:08AM EST
225 comments
Frances Woolley is a professor of economics at Carleton University, where she teaches public
finance. Her recent Economy Lab posts can be found here.
Australia is like Canada, only different. There, like here, one in five people were born abroad.
Like us, they have a points based immigration system, favouring skilled workers.
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Yet while Canada’s recent immigrants struggle in the labour market, earning significantly less
than the native born, Australia’s immigrants experience a much smaller earnings gap.
A recent paper by University of Waterloo professor Mikal Skuterud and his Australian co-author,
Andrew Clarke, attempts to discover Australia’s secret.
Is it Australia’s track record of economic growth? Something about the way wages are
determined in Australia? Or is it Australia’s immigration policy, a model that has captured the
imagination of policy makers in Ottawa?
In the late 1990s, Australia introduced two major changes to its immigration program. First, it
introduced mandatory English language testing. Second, it began pre-screening immigrants like
dentists, nurses or engineers, ensuring that their professional credentials met Australian
standards.
The aim of the new Australian rules was to improve an immigrant’s labour market success.
Immigrants who were already fluent in English would not, policy makers thought, struggle the
way that non-English speakers do. Pre-screening would speed up the process of credential
recognition. Immigrants would be able to get jobs in their field right away, instead of driving
taxis.
Clarke and Skuterud tested the success of the Australian policy by focusing in on three specific
groups of immigrants: men of Chinese, Indian and British origin.
In theory, because Australia generally expects Chinese immigrants to pass a rigorous English
language test, and have credentials equivalent to Australian ones, immigrants from China should
do relatively well in Australia -- better than in Canada, where immigrants do not go through such
intensive pre-screening.
For British immigrants, who typically speak English fluently, and have professional credentials
that meet Canadian and Australian standards, Australia’s pre-screening rules should not make
much difference. Very few British immigrants would be screened out by English language
testing and credential assessment. Immigrants from the U.K. should, therefore, do about the same
in Canada and Australia.
India falls somewhere in the middle. English is widely spoken, but Indian credentials are not
always comparable to Canadian or Australian ones. Still, the Australian rules would be expected
to screen out some of the less qualified immigrants from India -- raising the average skill level of
Indian immigrants, and thus their labour market success.
That’s the theory. But what was the reality?
Clarke and Skuterud found no evidence that Australia’s immigration policy helped immigrants
succeed in the labour market. Australia’s carefully pre-screened Chinese immigrants do no better
than immigrants admitted under Canada’s points and family reunification schemes. As the
researchers put it, “neither the employment nor earnings estimates for Australia's Chinese
immigrants …suggest improvements in average performance concomitant with Australia's
tightening immigration policy.” As for immigrants from India, according to Clarke and Skuterud,
“the earnings shortfalls of Indian migrants evident in the 1980s actually worsened with the
tightening of Australia's selection [criteria]”.
So why does the average Australian immigrant do better than the average Canadian immigrant?
Clarke and Skuterud argue that the new immigration policy led to a shift in the ethnic
composition of Australian immigrants. Growth in immigration from Asia tailed off when the new
rules were introduced. Compared to Canada, Australia now attracts relatively fewer Asian
immigrants, and far more British ones. Less than 5 per cent of the recent Canadian arrivals in
Clarke and Skuterud’s data are of U.K. origin, compared to 20 per cent of people coming to
Australia. In both countries, immigrants from the U.K. are rapidly assimilated into local labour
markets, quickly achieving earnings and employment levels similar to those of native-born
Canadians. Immigrants in Australia do better, on average, than immigrants in Canada, because
more belong to rapidly assimilated immigrant groups.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has recently announced plans to reform Canada’s
immigration system, and it seems likely that the government will adopt at least some elements of
the Australian model.
Yet Australian-style rules might play out differently in this country. Canada could throw its
doors open to British immigrants, but it’s not clear how many would choose to come. Australia
has better beaches. Even with tighter entry requirements, Canada will continue to be an attractive
destination for Asian immigrants, with our economic opportunities, strong educational system,
and thriving communities.
The key policy question then becomes: how can Canada help new immigrants succeed? The
bottom line of Clarke and Skuterud’s paper is that Australia’s more rigorous screening of
immigrants has not ended their labour market woes: immigrants of Chinese and Indian origin
struggle there as much as here. Other studies, however, have identified a strategy that does work:
encouraging young immigrants, especially ones who have at least part of their education in
Canada. The earlier someone comes to Canada, the better their prospects of labour market
success.
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Immigration
Destination Manitoba: Province a model of immigration
reform
joe friesen — DEMOGRAPHICS REPORTER
From Monday's Globe and Mail
Published Sunday, Feb. 05, 2012 9:13PM EST
Last updated Monday, Feb. 06, 2012 8:51PM EST
88 comments
A decade ago, Manitoba was a place that grew only slowly and fretted about the day it might
start to shrink. But when the results of the 2011 census are released this week, some of the most
surprising population gains could be in a place that for years barely grew at all.
Over the past ten years, Manitoba has more than tripled its share of national immigration and in
the process become a model for immigration reform. With roughly 3 per cent of Canada’s
population, Manitoba now attracts nearly 6 per cent of its immigrants, more than 15,000 in 2010.
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The overwhelming majority arrived under the provincial nominee program, which Manitoba was
the first province to adopt in 1998. That decision proved to be transformative. Manitoba is not a
resource-boom economy like its oil and potash-rich Prairie cousins. It grows only modestly even
in the best of times. So it’s no small accomplishment that Manitoba has become a destination for
immigrants.
Unusually, areas outside the city of Winnipeg began welcoming large numbers of newcomers in
the early part of the decade. Brandon, a city of 40,000 is home to a major meat-packing plant that
has always had trouble finding and keeping workers. Today, the plant has spawned a
multicultural boom. There are now 57 language groups in Brandon, with workers from El
Salvador, China, Colombia and elsewhere having led the city’s transformation.
The fastest growing region in the country in 2010 was the agricultural and manufacturing belt
south of Winnipeg, populated by the church-going communities of Winkler, Morden and Altona.
The area has welcomed thousands of newcomers from Germany and Mexico, many of them with
families of seven or more. They’ve been helped in their adjustment by locals whose Germanspeaking families came to Canada last century. Since that initial wave the region has seen
growing immigration from Kazakhstan and other former Soviet republics. It’s now targeting
countries suffering through the European financial crisis, in particular Ireland and Belgium. The
search criteria: family oriented, looking for a small community, farmers, tradespeople and
entrepreneurs welcome.
Manitoba’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister Christine Melnick said the province targets the
kind of immigrants who are likely to settle in the province. Often that means people with family
ties to Manitoba or who will find a national or ethnic community to tap into. So far, the retention
rate among nominee immigrants is nearly 83 per cent. With a median age of 28, they also tend to
be younger than those in other immigration streams. A recent federal review found that
Manitoba’s provincial nominees have very high rates of employment, but earn substantially less
on average ($33,000 three years after arrival) than those in Alberta and British Columbia.
“We bring in people we believe will be comfortable in Manitoba. We don’t necessarily target
groups for specific employment opportunities,” Ms. Melnick said.
Manitoba would like to see the cap on its nominee applicants raised. Federal Citizenship and
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney intends to reform Canada’s immigration system this year,
but it’s not clear whether he will expand the nominee program. It may also be difficult for
Manitoba, which already eats up nearly a third of the nominee allocation, to argue for more
permits. In the meantime, Manitoba is pouring its resources into settling new arrivals. Finding
affordable housing has recently been an issue.
Marietta Franco and her family arrived in Winnipeg three years ago from the Philippines. Ms.
Franco, 43, said she was miserable for the first six months and cried regularly. It was the middle
of winter and she talked openly about returning home. But other members of Winnipeg’s large
Filipino community, including two brothers who sponsored her under the nominee program,
persuaded her to persevere.
“Now I tell my friends [in the Philippines] it’s only the weather that’s a problem. Otherwise, this
is the perfect place to live. I’ve found so many friends here,” she said. “For my children, there’s
lots of opportunities.”
She and her husband recently bought their own home. He works in a plant that makes parts for
buses and she works with other recent immigrants at The Immigrant Centre, a settlement agency.
Linda Lalande, executive director at the Immigrant Centre, said demand for her agency’s
services has skyrocketed in recent years, as immigrants to Winnipeg nearly doubled.
The Immigrant Centre insists that every newcomer meet with a settlement worker for an
assessment. They provide help with language courses, getting government ID, enrolling their
kids in school and so on. That relationship between the settlement worker and the immigrant
continues for months as the immigrant gets established, providing a one-stop-shop for
integration. The centre also offers help with employment training. Of those who went through
their employment program in December, 85 per cent are already working more than 30 hours a
week.
“We have this saying, the better the start, the better the future,” Ms. Lalande said.
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Cut the overlap in immigration system, report warns
tu thanh ha
Globe and Mail Update
Published Tuesday, Feb. 07, 2012 10:32AM EST
Last updated Tuesday, Feb. 07, 2012 6:35PM EST
247 comments
Canada’s immigration system can be improved without a major overhaul if program overlaps can
be reduced, with Ottawa focusing on long-term labour market objectives and letting the
provinces and the business-driven temporary worker program address short-term needs, says a
new report.
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"Knocking Down Barriers Faced by New Immigrants to Canada"
Download this file (.pdf)
All three main programs to immigrate to Canada are currently designed to meet immediate
labour needs and end up overlapping, says the special report released Tuesday by TD
Economics.
The report comes at a time when the face of Canadian immigration is changing, a reality
expected to be highlighted when figures for the 2011 census are released this week.
Furthermore, Federal Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney intends to reform
Canada’s immigration system this year.
Historically, the lion’s share of newcomers to Canada entered through the Federal Skilled
Worker program. Others came under the Temporary Foreign Worker program and, since the
1990s, provinces have sought out their own economic immigrants under what is called nominee
programs.
The problem, the report says, is that “the FSW, TFW and provincial nominee programs are all
seemingly designed to address short-term labour demand, creating significant overlap, while the
longer-term challenges of the job market are left unaddressed.”
The report noted that the oft-backlogged federal skilled-worker stream has contributed to the
“doctor driving a cab” trend.
For example, half of the of the immigrant men who were let into Canada between 2000 and 2005
had a background in computer science or engineering, right at the time the dot-com bubble was
bursting.
“The Federal Skilled Worker program, as it stands, is simply not nimble enough to respond to the
rapidly changing needs of the Canadian labour market,” the report says.
At the same time, provincial governments have been allowed under nominee programs to meet
their own local economic needs by targeting specifically certain classes of immigration, with the
federal government expediting the nominees’ permanent residence application.
(Quebec has operated its own immigration program since 1991.)
Provincial nominees tend to have lower levels of education but almost always have a prearranged job.
“The provinces and the private sector through their provincial nominee programs and the TFW
program are better positioned to identify and respond quickly to their rapidly-shifting and
varying short-term labour market needs,” the report says.
Ottawa should make the Federal Temporary Foreign Worker a complement to the provincial
nominee programs, implementing quick approval times and having it target specific skill sets
rather than broader job categories, the report said.
To re-align its Federal Skilled Worker program for more strategic goals, Ottawa should be
flexible and open when it decides which job descriptions are eligible in that stream.
“Effectively predicting high-demand occupations will require a combination of empirical
modeling and regular consultations with the private sector,” the report said.
It also argues that, since the skilled-worker program would no longer be aimed at meeting shortterm labour needs, a greater emphasis should be placed on the applicants’ ability to speak
English or French.
Under the current points system, an applicant needs to score at least 67 points out of a maximum
of 100 to become eligible. Since language skills count for 24 points, “in theory, a prospective
immigrant with absolutely no ability to speak either official language can still gain acceptance,”
the report noted.
The picture is not entirely negative, the report says.
“What might come as a surprise to many Canadians is that this country is generally looked upon
favourably due to its perceived success at attracting and retaining a disproportionate share of
high-quality migrants . . . many countries – including Sweden, Germany, and Japan – are now
looking towards Canada as a model in developing immigration systems for targeting high-skilled
immigrants.”
Changes are nevertheless required to meet the need for skilled labour that will arise from the
impending retirement of baby boomers.
“Skilled immigration will define the landscape of the global labour market over the longer term
as nations compete for a relatively small pool of skilled labour,” the report predicts. “An
effective immigration system will thus be critical to the long-term prosperity of Canada.”
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