Tight immigration laws in the U.S. work to B.C.'s advantage
Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, July 09, 2007

While it would be nice to be able to say that Microsoft is opening a new branch here simply because Vancouver is such a great place to do business in, the real reason is clearly more complicated.

The software giant, based in Redmond, Wash., did cite Vancouver's "globally envied quality of life" in its announcement, but it also noted that the Canadian operation would allow it to continue to recruit highly skilled people affected by immigration problems in the United States.

In any competition, including the international race for business investment, a competitor's blunder can be as useful as something we do right. In this case, the growing crisis over immigration in the U.S. is presenting an opportunity for Canada and particularly Vancouver to shine.

The recent failure by the U.S. Congress to pass a new immigration bill means that the cap on visas for skilled workers remains in effect for our southern neighbours. Only about 85,000 visas are available each year; a record 150,000 requests were filed on the first day applications were accepted for this year's allotment.

Canada has no such limit, so Microsoft and other high-tech firms can bring in as many skilled workers as they can recruit.

It's worth noting for assessing our own immigration laws that we will be gaining skilled jobs partly as an unintended result of a policy in the U.S. designed to protect the jobs of Americans.

Microsoft's current plan is to start in the fall at a yet-to-be designated location in the Lower Mainland with about 200 software developers and eventually expand up to 900.

Regardless of why these high-paying jobs are coming to Vancouver, our task now is to figure out how to keep them.

In that regard, we have both natural advantages and challenges. On the business side, we already have a thriving software development sector with successful firms such as Electronic Arts Canada and Vivendi Games.

We are also only a couple of hours away and in the same time zone as the centre of the Microsoft empire, which employs more than 75,000 people worldwide. Of that total, 35,000 workers are in Washington state.

Immigrants recruited by Microsoft to come here will be rewarded with the relatively high salaries prevalent in the industry, but they will face the all-too-familiar problem of the high cost of housing in the Lower Mainland.

Still, that negative should be more than offset by the benefits of moving into the multicultural city that Vancouver has become, especially for software engineers recruited from India and China.

In the global competition for business investment and skilled workers, this is a comparative advantage that should serve us well.

You can now listen to every Vancouver Sun story on our new digital edition.

Free to full-week print subscribers or sign up for a 7-day free trial.

www.vancouversun.com/digital.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news ... be8495a9eb