2007 National Vital Signs Report
Getting Started in our Community
Vital Comment
"Canada's future economic growth and competitiveness will depend on how quickly and effectively we can integrate immigrants into our workplaces and our communities. We look at international experience as an asset and try to consider how we can leverage it for competitive advantage, to better serve increasingly diverse clients, to generate new ideas, and to develop knowledge about global markets. Effective immigration, integration and inclusion policies, plus employment practices focused on diverse talent, will be critical in confronting labour shortages and sustaining economic growth. The stakes are higher than ever before." More »
Zabeen Hirji, Chief Human Resources Officer, RBC
Whether we realize it or not, immigration affects every Canadian and every community. The growth and prosperity of our country literally depends on newcomers. Immigration accounts for about two–thirds of our population growth and 70% of the net growth in our labour force.11
Our country has one of the highest percentages of foreign-born population in the world – in 2001, 18.4% of Canada’s population was born overseas12. Visible minorities make up an increasing share of the newcomer population. In our long history as a country of immigrants, newcomers will shape our future more than ever before. How we welcome them and help them settle has never been more important.
Despite Canada’s falling unemployment rate, it is harder for new immigrants than for other Canadians to get a job. While the 2006 Census figures aren’t available yet, the picture in 2001 showed that recent immigrants – those who had arrived in the previous five years – were almost twice as likely (1.72 times to be exact) to be unemployed as people born in Canada. In cities with high immigration, the difference was even more dramatic.
This is particularly worrying, when immigrants are arriving with more education and qualifications than ever.
Our immigration system evaluates potential newcomers on a point system that favours education and qualifications, tacitly holding out the promise of employment in that field. But many immigrants find that the qualifications that got them into the country can’t get them a job.
One study shows that many of our most highly-skilled immigrants encounter such difficulty finding work that they stay only a short time in Canada before deciding to move elsewhere. Studies also show that while immigrants arrive in Canada healthier than Canadian-born counterparts of the same age, they lose this advantage over time.
“My husband and I got into Canada by the points system. We passed and became landed due to our education, English skills, and other factors… But then we got here and there were no jobs. Our diplomas were not really worth anything.” – Focus group participant, Unsettled: Legal and Policy Barriers to Newcomers to Canada
Not surprisingly, given their employment difficulties, poverty within immigrant communities is much higher than the Canadian average: 35% of newcomers who arrived in 1991 or later were living below the poverty line in 2001 (using the before tax LIM measure – see the Gap Between Rich and Poor for details on poverty measuring sticks)14.
“The costs of not utilizing newcomers’ skills are numerous, and they impact Canada, the sending countries, and the immigrants themselves and their families. Economic costs include labour shortages, unnecessary retraining, a greater burden on social programs, the loss of potential tax revenue, and an overall increase in immigrant poverty rates. In social terms, the exclusion of newcomers has costs in terms of ethnic and race relations, human rights, the settlement process, and mental health.” – Unsettled: Legal and Policy Barriers for Newcomers to Canada
Taking Action
The Maytree Foundation is a Canadian organization established in 1982. Maytree views immigration and urbanization as powerful elements in the Canadian landscape, and works to accelerate the settlement of refugees and immigrants in large urban centres. Maytree also aims to strengthen the vibrancy of civil society by supporting the development of strong leaders and organizations.
A key Maytree initiative is the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC), a multi-stakeholder collaboration of employers, occupational regulatory bodies, post-secondary institutions, assessment service providers, labour, immigrant professional associations, community organizations and all three levels of government. Together, this group works to address an urgent need -- effective and appropriate inclusion of skilled immigrants in the labour market. Amongst many successful initiatives, TRIEC has developed the Mentoring Partnership, a collaboration of community organizations and corporate partners that brings together skilled immigrants and established professionals in occupation-specific mentoring relationships. Since the program was launch in November 2004, over 2000 mentoring matches have been made, with 70% of mentees finding employment at the end of the relationship.
Other examples include The Calgary Foundation’s Immigrant Access Fund., which provides loans of up to $5,000 to immigrants to fund the accreditation process (study and examination fees, for example) that makes it possible for them to work in their field in Canada.
The Waterloo Region Immigrant Employment Network, a region-wide strategy to ensure that immigrant skills are better used – to benefit newcomers and their families, the local economy and the community as a whole. WRIEN includes funders, businesses, immigrants, educators, governments and community-based organizations. The Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation was an early funder and catalyst of the WRIEN initiative.
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