Has Canada failed its most educated immigrants?
Has Canada failed its most educated immigrants?
Dhanya Mohan
By Minu Mathew
The Ontario Human Rights Code states that it is public policy in Ontario to recognize the inherent dignity and worth of every person and to provide for equal rights and opportunities without discrimination. When immigrants with professional degrees and international experience end up in survival jobs, should Canada re-examine its emphasis on skilled immigration?
A Statistics Canada study shows that since 1994, the highest percentage of immigrants fall under the “economic class,” with a projected 60 per cent for 2020. Immigrants, who account for one-fifth of the Canadian population, help offset challenges from an aging population and declining birth rate. “Growing immigration levels, particularly in the economic class, will help us sustain our labour force, support economic growth and spur innovation.” says the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship as quoted in the 2018 annual report to the parliament.
Amidst this boost in economic immigration, a 2017 report by Munk School of Global Affairs, UofT, says: “First, skilled immigrants often do not succeed in getting those professional and other highly skilled jobs for which they are presumed to be qualified. As a result, pervasive underutilization of the skills of highly educated immigrants—‘brain waste’—is a serious issue in Canadian immigration.”
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