Canada’s immigration increase alone won’t fix the labour market, experts say
Experts say Canada’s plan to extend immigration might ease some pressures within the labour market, however larger modifications are wanted to make sure new everlasting residents are matched with the roles that the majority want filling.
With the unemployment fee at historic lows, many firms are “starved” for employees, and new immigrants will assist fill a few of the want, mentioned Ravi Jain, principal at Jain Immigration Law and co-founder of the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association.
The federal authorities’s new immigration plan requires the admission of 1.45 million extra new everlasting residents over the following three years, starting with 465,000 in 2023 and reaching 500,000 in 2025. That’s in contrast with 341,000 in 2019.
According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the plan is meant to assist appeal to labour in key sectors, together with healthcare, expert trades, manufacturing and know-how.
“It’s clear that there are real gaps, real demands, and real needs,” mentioned Naomi Alboim, a senior coverage fellow at Toronto Metropolitan University and a former Ontario Deputy Minister of Immigration.
But upping immigration ranges is only one method to start addressing these wants, she mentioned — the federal government’s plan must be a part of a wider initiative to handle momentary employees, worldwide college students and a bigger vary of jobs.
Change is required to make sure new Canadians are well-matched to jobs that maximize their expertise, {qualifications} and expertise, mentioned Alboim.
Recent immigrants are much less more likely to see their expertise and training utilized than Canadian-born employees, Statistics Canada mentioned, and new and up to date immigrants are overrepresented in sure industries, together with transportation and warehousing, and lodging and meals providers.
Government insurance policies have created a mismatch between the particular expertise employers are in search of and the talents of immigrants being accepted, Toronto immigration lawyer Sergio Karas mentioned.
Some of this mismatch begins with worldwide college students, mentioned Karas. Though many worldwide college students plan to turn into everlasting residents after they graduate, lots of them aren’t in packages for jobs which might be in demand by immigration insurance policies, like healthcare or trades, he mentioned.
International college students and momentary overseas employees (TFWs) have made up an more and more massive portion of Canada’s financial immigrants, or these chosen for his or her contribution to the financial system, who made up greater than half of current immigrants in 2021, Statistics Canada mentioned.
In 2020, 67 per cent of the nation’s principal candidates within the financial class had been beforehand momentary overseas employees or worldwide college students, the company mentioned.
But that 67 per cent is a comparatively small portion of all of the momentary employees and worldwide college students in Canada, mentioned Alboim. Canada had 777,000 TFW work allow holders in 2021, and nearly 622,000 worldwide college students that yr, Statistics Canada mentioned.
Canada’s dependence on momentary employees to fill long-term gaps is a large drawback, mentioned Alboim. It creates little incentive to enhance wages, situations or helps for momentary employees, she mentioned.
Federal immigration coverage appears laser-focused on jobs requiring larger ranges of coaching and training, mentioned Alboim, a barrier to everlasting residency for a lot of TFWs and worldwide college students.
That’s even supposing a lot of Canada’s labour scarcity is in jobs that require decrease ranges of training or expertise, jobs that many momentary employees and college students tackle, mentioned Alboim.
The federal authorities ought to develop its scope to prioritize extra of those sorts of jobs, she mentioned.
“There are way, way, way more people here now with temporary status that will never be able to transition to permanent residency, assuming they want to, unless the rules for permanent residency are changed to recognize that we actually need them too,” she mentioned.
However, not all of the onus lies on the federal authorities, Jain mentioned. One ongoing drawback has been immigrants’ credentials not being acknowledged in Canada, and whereas there have been some current modifications geared toward enhancing that, extra must be achieved, he mentioned. These credentials are the jurisdiction of provinces and territories, not Ottawa.
Provincial and regional immigration packages typically do a greater job of bringing in employees who can meet a variety of labour wants together with in lower-skill jobs, Alboim mentioned, noting these packages are set to extend beneath the federal authorities’s plan.
A legislative modification lately gave the minister of immigration the facility to pick out immigrants for Express Entry packages primarily based on particular qualities like occupation, however at the moment Alboim anticipates that use of that energy will probably be centered on higher-level jobs.
“(There are) real needs at the high end, which immigration should certainly be focused on, but not exclusively,” she mentioned.
Jain agreed.
“My worry is that if the targeted draws get too heavy, like if it’s weighted too much in terms of the proportion of people coming in, then I worry that some of these other folks will get marginalized,” he mentioned.
“There needs to be some kind of a balance.”
— With information from Lee Berthiaume
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Jan. 19, 2023.
