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But differences begin to diminish the longer immigrants are in Canada

On average, immigrants had lower wages and higher rates of involuntary part-time work and temporary employment compared to non-immigrants in 2008, according to Statistics Canada.

The 2008 Canadian Immigrant Labour Market: Analysis of Quality of Employment found the average hourly wage of a Canadian-born employee aged 25 to 54 was $23.72, compared with $21.44 for an immigrant worker. The wage gap was widest, at about $5, for immigrants who had landed within the previous five years and among university degree holders.

While the proportion of immigrants and Canadian-born workers who held multiple jobs were similar, immigrants with more than one job worked an average of 50 hours in 2008, or 2.3 hours per week more than their Canadian-born counterparts.

Among part-time workers, the share of immigrants who cited working part time involuntarily (38 per cent) was higher than Canadian-born in 2008 (30 per cent).

In 2008, 9.7 per cent of immigrants were working in temporary positions, slightly more than the 8.3 per cent of Canadian-born employees. But the proportion was higher for immigrants who landed within the previous five years (16 per cent) and lower among immigrants in Canada for more than 10 years (7.2 per cent).

The study found immigrants were also more likely to be overqualified for their jobs compared to the Canadian born. In 2008, 42 per cent of immigrant workers aged 25 to 54 had a higher level of education for their job than what was normally required, while 28 per cent of Canadian-born workers were similarly over-qualified.

More than 1.1 million workers aged 25 to 54 who had a university degree were working in occupations whose normal requirements were at most a college education or apprenticeship. The share of immigrants with degrees who were over-qualified was 1.5 times higher than their Canadian-born counterparts.

Over-qualification was particularly prevalent among university-educated immigrants who landed within five years before the survey. Two-thirds worked in occupations that usually required at most a college education or apprenticeship.

Nick,

Thanks for the wonderful work you do in favour of the immigrants.

I arrived to Vancouver from Mexico in April 2009. I´m an Electrical Engineer and since September I have a job in my field. Right now I a working as a technician, but I know is just a matter of time to obtain a job as an engineer.

Of course I need to meet the required criteria and follow the process to be certified as a P. Eng.

The most important things I believe I am doing, and I say doing, is because I see this as a continuous process:  learn and integrate to the Canadian culture, improve my English and update my technical skills by taking at least a short course in my field in a canadian institute.

These three issues are not easy to do, they require study and effort.

Of course what I did was based on your advice and articles you publish in you magazine, and also attending Pro-Tech and Working Solutions for Skilled Immigrants programs, from SUCCESS and Douglas College respectively, and I got a job now.

I still remember when I arrived to Canada, I received brochures from the Immigration department, but also a copy of your magazine. After I read it, it helped me a lot to visualize how to start my career goals in Canada. Your magazine was very helpful.

So I just wanted to let you know how you helped me and that there is another new immigrant with a job in his field, thanks again.

Sincerely, Eduardo Saldana

A programme that allows international students to work for up to three years after graduation just might increase Canada’s recruitment competitiveness. Foreign applicants for a university place have discovered that employment of that duration puts them on an immigration fast track so choosing a Canadian university now offers more than just a degree.

The Canadian Post-Graduation Work Permit Program has already proved popular and is attracting a flood of applications. International students, immigration advocates, student advisers and universities have long called for more attractive post-graduation working conditions and welcomed the scheme.

“This has definitely made Canada more competitive,” said Anna Done Choudhury, an international student adviser at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.

Choudhury said that allowing students to work three years after graduation “has closed the gap between international students and Canada wanting qualified immigrants”. Having taught immigration studies, she said many students who previously wanted to increase their eligibility for permanent residency had to go to the US to work and then return to Canada to apply.

Canada uses a points system in deciding who best qualifies to be a citizen and a simple university degree, without post graduation work in Canada, earns few points. The new programme takes those who have worked during the post-graduation period out of the points system and either passes or fails them although an overwhelming number, more than 95%, have passed.

According to the 2009 Survey of International Students, released at the Canadian Bureau for International Education conference in Toronto last week, half the students surveyed said post-graduation work opportunities in Canada were an important factor in choosing to study in the country.

The same number said they planned to work in Canada after they graduated. An even larger number, almost three in four students, cited the work opportunities as an important reason. In 2008, 18,000 work permits were issued by the government, a 63% increase on the year before.

In a session at the CBIE conference, Citizen and Immigration Canada’s Jorge Aceytuno told delegates introduction of the postgraduate work programme had led to the interest in work permits. Aceytuno said his ministry would like to see a large increase in work permits as a result of the programme.

Bureau Vice-President Jennifer Humphries agreed there was now more than just a university choice for international students interested in studying in Canada: “People are looking at the potential for career advancement for their education. If they have three years of work after graduation, this looks better on their resumes,” Humphries said.

Part of the rationale for introducing the programme was probably playing catch-up with recruiters from England and Australia which have similar schemes, as well as to gain an edge over the US whose postgraduate work programme is not as liberal.

Choudhury’s colleague Lise Pedersen was also relieved to see the programme, saying it helped not only in getting students some employment after graduation but also gave them more opportunity during their studies.

Even though the government had earlier introduced a scheme that allowed students to work off campus, Pedersen said employers were sometimes reluctant to hire international students for co-op programmes because of their lack of future availability for what might turn into a permanent position.

Now, she said, they knew the student could work not only up to three years following graduation but also they were likely to become a Canadian citizen.

philip.fine@uw-news.com

Canada proposes to expand its overseas pilot project aimed at better equipping newcomer professionals immigrating through the skilled worker program to hit the deck running after landing here, Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney said last week.”We will announce details about the expansion next month,” he told Focus.

The minister was speaking to the media alongside the Sixth Annual Diwali Gala organized by the Canada-India Business Council at a glittering function graced by several key politicians of all stripes and hues, senior business leaders and prominent community members. An estimated 400 people attended.

Kenney said the planned expansion would follow the success of its initial pilot project wherein Ottawa had selected its missions in New Delhi, Beijing and Manila to do a better job of informing prospective immigrants about actual Canadian conditions, particularly as regards the jobs market and the importance of credentials evaluation.

The project had been initiated by the then CIC Minister Diane Finley, to enable newcomers learn if, for instance, they needed to upgrade their academic skills, and how they could do so, even before landing on Canadian shores; this has since already been substantially enhanced, Kenney suggested.

“Prospective immigrants (provisionally) selected through the federal skilled workers’ program are being invited to a free two-day seminar conducted in New Delhi, where they’re given practical information about the jobs market in Canada, which jobs are in demand at which places, how they can get their academic credentials evaluated, what they need to do to upgrade their qualifications and how they can do so – even as their medical and security checks are being carried out,” the minister said.

Kenney earlier informed the audience Canada is working with India on several initiatives, all aimed at boosting bilateral trade, currently at a “ridiculously low” level, to $10 billion.

He noted applications for immigrant visas are today coming in from all over India – rather than primarily the north-western region of Punjab and Haryana, as has hitherto been the case – and that Canada has also vastly improved its express visa service for businessmen, which offers multiple entry visas to applicants within just 24 hours.

“We’re also actively negotiating a nuclear cooperation pact and have an investment protection agreement, and have established one of our most widespread overseas network offices in India, with three new trade offices opened by our government since 2006,” he said.

“We’re also dedicated to doubling the number of Indian students coming to Canada,” the minister said.

He however declined specifics on the nuclear cooperation pact, noting Prime Minister Stephen Harper leads a high-level delegation to India Nov 16-18.

Earlier Liberal Opposition leader Michael Ignatieff welcomed Harper’s visit to India, “as long as it’s not just a photo-op”.

Addressing the diners, he said Canada must take a leadership role in helping India develop financial services, clean energy and advanced water technologies.

Ignatieff praised the Indo-Canadian community and India as “a country that has managed to maintain democratic stability and at the same time (brought) hundreds of millions of people into the promise of growth”.

He added Harper’s visit must be part of a “steady, sustained, engaged commitment” to develop closer relations between the two countries.

The Liberal leader stressed Canada needs to diversify its trade partners, and that the moving axis of trade towards India and China “reflects no more than the very identity of Canada itself, today, and its peoples”.

Sandra Pupatello, Ontario Minister of Economic Development&Trade, noted the province’s trade with India has surged 108 per cent over the last five years, and attributed “the relation we’ve built with India is due to the people in this room”.

The council’s new president and executive director Rana Sarkar noted C-IBC has doubled its membership since he was brought aboard some nine months earlier.

He added that going forward, Canada’s single requirement is the need to diversify, and that India, even with its many challenges, provides a strong future alternative.

Others to address the gala included Roy MacLaren, chair, C-IBC, who welcomed the audience; Gerald Grandey, president and CEO, Cameco Corp, who provided an outline of the possible benefits nuclear energy cooperation would offer both Canada and India; and Peter Sutherland, who conducted the proceedings.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — People should not look upon immigrants as problems, but as fellow brothers and sisters who can be valuable contributors to society, Pope Benedict XVI said.

The migration of peoples represents a chance “to highlight the unity of the human family and the value of welcoming, hospitality and love for one’s neighbor,” he said Nov. 9.

The pope spoke during an audience with participants of the Sixth World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees taking place Nov. 9-12 at the Vatican.

The pope underlined the dramatic difficulties many migrants face in their efforts to survive or improve living conditions for themselves and their families.

“The economic crisis, with the enormous growth in unemployment, diminishes the possibilities of employment and increases the number of those who aren’t able to find even unsteady work,” he said.

The economic divide between industrialized and poor countries continues to grow, he said, and many people have no choice but to leave their homeland in search of a living — even if it means accepting inhuman working conditions and experiencing great difficulties fitting in someplace new with different language, culture and rules.

Many immigrants today are fleeing “humanly unacceptable” living conditions, but they are not finding “the reception they hoped for elsewhere,” said the pope.

Globalization means that working for the common good must extend beyond national borders, he said. True development comes through solidarity, addressing the unequal distribution of the world’s resources, “dialogue between cultures and respect for legitimate differences,” he said.

The pope said today’s phenomenon of world migration can offer that needed opportunity to meet new cultures, foster understanding between peoples, build peace and promote development that benefits all nations.

Christians must be open to listening to the word of God who calls people to imitate Christ in caring for others and to “never be tempted to despise and reject people who are different,” he said.

Conforming one’s life to Christ’s means seeing every man and woman as a brother or sister, children of the one God, he said.

This sense of brotherhood leads to being caring and hospitable toward others, especially those in need, he said.

“Every Christian community that is faithful to Jesus’ teachings cannot but feel respect and concern for all people … especially for those who find themselves in difficulty,” he said.

“This is why the church invites all Christians to open their hearts to migrants and their families knowing that they are not just a ‘problem,’ but are a ‘resource’” that can contribute to true development and the good of all people, he said.