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April 7 - April 14, 2002 |
The wasted talent of immigrants in Canada
Thousands of professionals aren't recognized by local government standards
By Irene Zerbini
Originally Published: 2002-03-31
If the immigrant cabbie driving tourists and businesspeople around our city has a few university degrees in his taxi's hood, that's a shame for him... but even more so for the country that squanders his human patrimony and professional expertise in this way.
It is a well-established fact that Canada ignores the talent and potential of most of its immigrants. However, no one has ever tried to put a price tag on this thoughtless attitude of prejudice. Now we know the figure: our national economy loses $15 billion per year because of immigrant misuse. These are the results of a study carried out by Jeffrey Reitz, professor of Urban Sociology at the University of Toronto. "Some people claim that this country suffers a brain drain towards the United States," says Reitz. "Well, on the other hand, we must recognize that we also receive a consistent influx of 'brains,' but do a very poor job when it comes to utilizing their skills."
Using projections from the 1996 census, Reitz compared the income of immigrant professionals with that of their Canadian-born colleagues. At the same level of education and professional training, foreign-born professionals earn one half, or even one third, of the wages paid to their Canadian-born counterparts.
Reitz concludes that Canadian economy wastes about $2.4 million per year due to immigrants being under-employed, i.e. taking a job well below their qualifications, and an additional $12.6 million due to those who are under-paid for their job. "Since I was born in the United States, I would like Toronto to avoid the mistakes made by so many American cities."
Reitz also compared the immigration programmes and laws of Australia, Germany, United Kingdom and United States with their Canadian equivalents. "What can't be denied is that there is less conflict in the Canadian reality, but this seems due more to traditional Canadian nature, which avoids confrontation whenever possible, than to consolidated open-mindedness." The research on attitudes towards immigrants shows that prejudice, in Canada, is no weaker than in Australia or the U.S. This translates, inevitably, in the laws governing the professional activity of immigrants, including the most educated and skilled. This situation has little to do with Italians, whose immigration all but stopped in the early Seventies. Canada is not a destination any more, even less so for Italian graduates. Every year, more North Americans move to Italy than the other way around.
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