Room for All in Modern Canada

Room for All in Modern Canada
Talk by Hon. David Kilgour

Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont
Multicultural Coalition Workshop
Heritage Room, City Hall, Edmonton
February 19, 2005

Newcomers to Canada are a valuable resource. They bring skills, culture and different perspectives which all contribute to Canada’s long-term prosperity. Canada is a country built on immigration.  We have long been a nation that has extended its protection to newcomers and afforded them the opportunity to fulfill their human potential. Furthermore, Canada requires immigration in order to maintain a stable population. With our total fertility rate at 1.61 we are far below the 2.2 that would be required to maintain our current population size. If the population were allowed to begin to decline, subsequent generations of Canadians would inevitably face a declining standard of living. It is therefore imperative that we continue to work to effectively integrate immigrants into Canada’s socio-economic fabric in a more effective manner.

One of the key objectives of Canada’s immigration program has always been to fill in gaps in the labour market and thus keep Canada globally competitive. However, over the last two decades a large percentage of immigrants consisting of highly educated professionals in areas as engineering, computing and the sciences as well as other highly qualified university graduates have continued to face great difficulty being integrated into the Canadian labour market in a manner that is commensurate with their qualifications and skills. Canada continues to attract large numbers of highly qualified individuals and yet when they arrive in Canada it is too often the case that they find themselves economically disadvantaged.

Newcomers Incomes & Employment

Immigrant employment rates and incomes continue to be well below those of their Canadian born counterparts. All too often highly skilled immigrants with degrees and expertise in specialist felids such as engineering, medicine and law can be found working for between $10 and $12 dollars an hour. Many of these individuals drive taxis; work at call centres and in entry-level service jobs. The underutilization of immigrants' skills is costing the Canadian economy at least $2-billion every year. Also, the large and disturbing declines in immigrant employment rates continue to add to these costs and are creating a new immigrant underclass. More and more new Canadians are finding themselves living in poverty despite possessing an impressive array of skills, qualifications and experience.

Between 1980 and 2000, we have seen the earnings of immigrant men drop from 71% of the wages of their Canadian counterparts to 63%. In the case of immigrant women we have also seen a similar declining trend. What is even more disturbing to note is that even after working a decade in Canada, more recent immigrants are still earning 15 to 20% less than their native born peers. If we examine the employment rate as it relates men and women of immigrant origin, we can clearly see once again the great discrepancy between immigrants and non-immigrants. As of the last census recent male immigrants aged 25 to 44 had an employment rate of 77.4%, 8.9 percentage points lower than the rate for their Canadian-born counterparts. In contrast, the situation with females is much worse. Only 55.6% of recent female immigrants in 2001 were employed, 21.8 percentage points lower than the employment rate of 77.4% for Canadian-born women in 2001.

The data from the 2001 census vividly illustrates that despite the fact that Canada’s most recent immigrants are on average better educated than native born workers, they are continuing to earn less than their native-born counterparts.

A big part of the problem is that the qualifications and skills of newcomers to Canada are not recognized or are seen as inferior. Although the credential recognition problem has been recognized as priority at the federal level, there is still not enough being done to solve it.

Credential Problems

It critical now more than ever to recognize that we live in a globalized world in which human mobility has reached unprecedented levels. If Canada is to continue to succeed as competitive force in the global economy we must do all that we can to utilize our human resources in the most effective manner. While there is always much talk of Canada’s Brain Drain and the ever-present lure of the United States, we need to focus more on Canada’s Brain Gain and the large number of highly qualified and highly trained individuals that continue to choose Canada as their new home. It is our great privilege that so many people continue to choose Canada as their destination of choice. If we do not act quickly we will lose our competitive edge in this respect as less people choose to come to Canada.

Non – Regulated Fields Versus Regulated Fields

Evidence show that immigrants in non-regulated fields such as computer scientists and programmers face little or no income disparity relative to their Canadian born peers. Those immigrants who seek to enter regulated fields such as engineering, medicine, accounting and law continue to experience the greatest inequity in their income relative to their Canadian born peers. This points to the fact that more needs to be done at the federal governmental level to help immigrants fulfill their potential after having come to Canada. First and foremost we need to implement a national system for the assessment of credentials, skills and experience that works in tandem with provincial systems. Such a system should capture immigrants upon their arrival to Canada and assist them by translating their qualifications and helping them acclimatize to the Canadian labour market. It is also essential to put in place programs at the federal level designed to cater for the social needs of new Canadians. It is far too often the case that individuals endure a rigorous process in getting to Canada only to find themselves marginalized and isolated when they arrive.

Grassroots Advocacy 

Grassroots organizations such as those involved here today are a very important part of the solution to the challenges and problems that face new Canadians. I urge you to continue to lobby on behalf all those who have made Canada their home. You must continue to emphasize the great economic contributions that immigrants bring to Canada in terms of the qualifications, skills and innovation. You must also stress the great social contributions that immigrants make by bringing their varied cultures and languages with them.

Grassroots organizations are the ones that are closest to the effects of policy decisions; therefore your input is invaluable to the process of constructing effective policy. You also have the freedom and the flexibility to pursue a focused agenda on issues of great importance that are not receiving an adequate amount of attention in the political sphere. Continued advocacy efforts and coalition building initiatives involving a diversity of groups from across Canada will ensure that the important issues that the Multicultural Coalition is representing will get the attention they deserve.