Canada attracting skilled immigrants
New system working. In 2000, 34 per cent of those arriving here had university degree

Published: Sunday, October 08, 2006
Canadian immigration policy is doing a good job of attracting skilled immigrants to this country, a Queen's University expert said.

Economics professor Charles Beach told a U.S. Senate committee recently that the growing importance of education, business and work experience as admission standards to Canada has significantly raised the education levels of the 230,000 immigrants who come to Canada annually.

The result is a group of new immigrants who are better educated and experienced, younger and more fluent in either English or French than the whole immigrant population.

The U.S. Senate invited Beach's testimony as part of a major debate on U.S. immigration policy driven by the large number of illegal immigrants in that country.

Only about 20 per cent of U.S. legal immigrants - one-third the level of Canada - enter the country under independent or economic status based on rules which reward education and work skills.

Some U.S. politicians are considering joining Canada and many other countries in adopting a similar point system tied to credentials.

Beach said "ironically, our findings have attracted more interest south of the border than from government officials in Ottawa."

The study did not deal with another touchy issue: making sure that more of these well-educated newcomers get jobs to match their skills.

Beach said in an interview yesterday that Canada has to do a better job of recognizing the credentials of foreign-born professionals and easing the transition to the Canadian job market.

"Some training, adjustment and wage subsidy programs were cut because of government deficits in the mid-1990s. I think that is a factor in the slower integration of some well-educated immigrants."

The study found that those with university and post-graduate degrees jumped to 34 per cent of all immigrants in 2000 from only eight per cent in 1980, while the proportion with only a secondary school education dropped from 59 per cent to 35 per cent.

The proportion with college or related training was flat at 16 per cent, while the balance have little formal education.

The reason for the big shift is that 59 per cent of all immigrants in 2000 entered Canada under independent or economic status determined by a point system - up from 35 per cent in 1980.

The proportion who entered under family unification status dropped from 36 per cent to 27 per cent and those who entered under humanitarian or refugee status dropped even more sharply, from 28 per cent to 13 per cent.

Beach, along with Professor Alan Green of Queen's and Professor Christopher Worswick of Carleton University in Ottawa, studied Canadian immigration after separating out the impact of business cycles and unemployment rates in Canada and the U.S.

"It appears that changing Canada's immigration policy to the point system had the desired effect of improving the quality of skill attributes of incoming immigrants," Beach said.

The point system has gone through many changes over the years, giving greater weight to education levels, work experience, the age of entrants and their fluency in English or French.

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjourna...7-5360f9d4e38e