Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - December 2009
Recent immigrants to Canada are underemployed, are earning less, and are more likely to work in part-time and temporary jobs, according to the latest statistics for last year.
A new report from Statistics Canada finds that, in 2008, recent immigrants were 1.5 times more likely than their Canadian-born counterparts to be working in fields beneath their education level. This is most often attributed to problems with foreign credential recognition in Canada, and the figures show little improvement in the situation over the last year.
"It's a confirmation of what we see," says Allison Pond, executive director of a Toronto employment services organization. "The issues still remain. There's a lack of recognition of foreign-trained credentials and access to the labour market; we still are facing barriers. I see it as something we're continuing to work to change."
On average, Canadian-born workers earned $2.28 more per hour than immigrants and $5.00 more per hour than immigrants who arrived within the past five years. That same group of immigrants who have been in Canada less than five years were more than double as likely to be working in temporary jobs.
Despite these figures for recent immigrants, overall the labour landscape evens out for immigrants in the long-term. Immigrants who have been in Canada for ten years or more are just as likely as their Canadian-born counterparts to be working at their education levels. After ten years, the likelihood of working in temporary jobs becomes less than that of a Canadian-born worker.
Source: Edmonton Journal
