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Immigrant Talent Integration
Did You Know? |
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Canada’s Changing Labour Force
Who is a Canadian Immigrant?
Immigrants in BC & Metro Vancouver
What Are the Barriers for Immigrant Integration?
There are very interesting statistics about immigrants living in British Columbia and in Canada. The statistics referred to here were retrieved from Canada Census 2006 reports and may be useful in making a business case to introduce and/or enhance diversity and immigrant recruitment practices in your organization.
Canada’s Changing Labour Force
The Canadian labour force is aging: “For the first time ever, there are just as many workers in Canada over 40 as there are under” and with declining birth rates, employers need to consider diversifying their workforce as part of their long-term growth and stability planning.
Source: hireimmigrants.ca, April 14, 2009
More visible minority workers: “In 2006, the median age of the visible minority population was 33 years, compared with 39 years for the total population in Canada... There was also a higher proportion of visible minorities who were of the core working-age group of 25 to 54 years than the total population.”
Source: Statistics Canada, April 14, 2009
Immigrants are the future labour force: Immigration was responsible for two-thirds of population growth in Canada from 2001-2006. Immigrants “accounted for slightly over one-fifth (21.2%) of Canada's total labour force in 2006”. By the end of the next decade immigrants will account for 100% of net labour force growth.
Source: Statistics Canada, April 14, 2009
Source: Statistics Canada, April 14, 2009
Source: Statistics Canada, April 14, 2009
“Research has shown that without immigration there would be only two ways to fuel the workforce: natural increase (more births than deaths) or movement from rural to urban areas. Both have levelled off in Canada in recent years, making the role of immigrants more important for the Canadian economy.”
Source: Integrating New Canadians into Canada and the Workplace: Maximizing Potential. The CCHRA’s 2008 National Human Resources Forum – White Paper, Retrieved 2009, from www.cchra.ca
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Who is a Canadian Immigrant?
Canada is the number one choice for immigration: “...Asked about their immigration decision, virtually all newcomers (98%) in the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada reported that they did not have any other country in mind when they put in their application to come to Canada.”
Source: Statistics Canada, April 14, 2009
Many Canadian immigrants are going through a thorough pre-selection process: Over 60% of immigrants come to Canada under the economic immigrant category and many are selected as skilled immigrants according to a point system, which favours highly-educated, younger, skilled workers who speak at least one of Canada’s official languages, and have professional degrees and relevant work experiences.
Source: Statistics Canada, April 14, 2009
Source: Statistics Canada, April 14, 2009
The majority of immigrants are highly-educated: Of recent immigrants, defined as those who arrived between 2001 and 2006, 51% have a degree, twice that of the Canadian-born labour force.
Source: Statistics Canada, April 14, 2009
Less than half of professional immigrants work in the occupation they were trained for: Of 12,000 immigrants who arrived in 2000-2001 it was found that while over 70% of arrived immigrants tried to enter the labour market, only 40% of skilled immigrants were working in the occupation or profession for which they were trained.
Source: (2005) Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada - A portrait of early settlement experiences, Retrieved 2009 from http://dsp-psd.tpsgc.gc.ca
Cultural mosaic of Canadian immigrants: “The South Asians became Canada's largest visible minority group in 2006, surpassing the Chinese for the first time. The populations of both were well over 1 million…The number of those identifying themselves as Black, the third largest visible minority group represent 15.5% of the visible minority population. . . Other visible minority groups included:
- Filipinos (8.1%)
- Latin Americans (6.0%)
- Arabs (5.2%)
- Southeast Asians (4.7%)
- West Asians (3.1%)
- Koreans (2.8%)
- Japanese (1.6%)
Combined, these groups made up nearly one-third (31.6%) of the visible minority population and 5.1% of the total population in 2006.”
Source: Statistics Canada, April 14, 2009
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Immigrants in BC & Metro Vancouver
BC has the second-highest population of foreign-born individuals of all the provinces: “For the first time, the 2006 Census enumerated over 1 million people who reported belonging to a visible minority group in British Columbia, which represented 24.8% of its total population . . ."
Source: Statistics Canada, April 14, 2009
The majority of BC’s immigrants are 20-54 years old: Between 2001 and 2006 151,700 new immigrants settled in the Metro Vancouver area; of that number, 62% of them are working-age immigrants.
Source: Statistics Canada, April 14, 2009
Metro Vancouver cities have the highest immigrant population in Canada: In the Metro Vancouver area, which is comprised of 21 municipalities, four in 10 residents belonged to a visible minority group.
Source: Statistics Canada, April 14, 2009
“The largest visible minority group in Vancouver was the Chinese population representing 18.2% of Vancouver's total population . . .
- The second largest visible minority population was the South Asian community representing 9.9% of Vancouver's total population . . .”
- Filipinos, the third largest visible minority group, accounted for close to 4% of the total population in the Metro Vancouver area . . .
- ”Koreans, Southeast Asians, West Asians, the Japanese, and Latin Americans were other visible minority groups, each of which accounted for 1-2% of the total population . . .”
Source: Statistics Canada, April 14, 2009
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What Are the Barriers for Immigrant Integration?
Talent acquisition strategies change slowly. “In the 2001 and 2006 Canadian censuses, the top four source countries for immigration to Canada were China, India, the Philippines and Pakistan, which represents a significant shift [from the European immigration wave 20 years ago]. Talent acquisition approaches must adapt to a new set of recruitment challenges in order to attract, hire, and retain skilled immigrants.”
Source: (2008) Integrating New Canadians into Canada and the Workplace: Maximizing Potential. The CCHRA’s 2008 National Human Resources Forum – White Paper , Retrieved 2009, from www.cchra.ca
Many Canadian employers have not fully recognized immigrant foreign qualifications, including credentials, skills and experiences. “International education receives lower returns than schooling obtained in Canada. A recent study revealed that it is only about 70% as much.” (Alboim, Finnie and Meng, 2005). The same study suggests “one year of domestic experience generates the same economic return as two-and-a-half years of foreign experience.”
Source: (2008) Integrating New Canadians into Canada and the Workplace: Maximizing Potential. The CCHRA’s 2008 National Human Resources Forum – White Paper , Retrieved 2009, from www.cchra.ca
Some HR and hiring managers are inhibited by misperceptions and cultural assumptions. Some hiring managers will not consider hiring or promoting an immigrant because he/she speaks with an accent, dresses and/or acts differently and practices religion openly.
Source: (2009) Hiring and Retaining Skilled Immigrants – A Cultural Competence Toolkit, Retrieved 2009, from www.bchrma.org
Unfair assessment practices of regulatory bodies pose barriers to immigrant professionals. On average, there are over 30 occupational regulatory bodies in each Canadian province. The major activity of regulatory bodies is to protect the public and ensure high professional standards in the field. However, many studies have shown that immigrants are not able to practice in the field of their professions because regulatory bodies failed to develop standards of practice that ensure licensing processes are fair, timely, transparent, and consistent. These processes and practices are frequently called ‘unfair and discriminatory’.
Written Submission to The Standing Committee on Regulations and Private Bills, On Bill 124, Fair Access to Regulated Professions Act, 2006 from PROMPT - Policy Roundtable Mobilizing Professions and Trades December 5, 2006
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