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UNAPPRECIATED IMMIGRANTS AND THEIR SKILLS IN THE ROLE MODEL MULTICULTURAL STATE - CANADA

                                                             Prof. Mirza Barjees Baig Ph.D., P.Ag.
                                                                     
By world standards, Canadians enjoy an outstanding standard of living and quality of life. Canada is the 7th highest-ranking country in the organization of economic cooperation and development (OECD) in terms of income per capita. For the past seven years, United Nations has rated Canada the top country in the world for over all quality of life. Canada is fortunate in many aspects and prime blessings come in the form of: long life expectancy, safe communities and natural environment is 2nd to none. Healthy forests, productive prairies, vast agricultural lands and precious oil fields make its economy strong.
Above all, its population is healthy, educated, civilized, open minded, friendly and pleasant making communities and society livable and sustainable.

Due to these high living standards and the magic words used by immigration lawyers in their advertisements, the highly educated and skilled professionals of the under developing countries get attracted and immigrate to Canada. Due to the welcoming immigration policy, there is a continuous influx of 250,000 highly skilled professionals per year in Canada and 60% of this population settles in Ontario.

No one can deny that this skilled labor force is the lifeblood of Canadian economy and of course, the strong economy of any country depends upon its skilled labor force. These immigrants are lifeblood of the economy of this country. But their pleasant dreams turn into nightmares when within a month; all of the funds they bring with them are consumed in the money-hungry and consuming system. After loosing all the valuables and assets, the successful settlement of these new immigrants in their new homeland still remains a challenge for many many years to come.

I have read many reports and projects undertaken by the government and universities aiming at the successful integration of new comers into the Canadian society. Human Resources Development Canada recently released a report indicating that government of Canada spends $ 330 million a year on programs to help foreign workers settle and adapt their skills to Canadian conditions. Recently, Minister for Training, Colleges and Universities also announced that an amount of $ 15 million would be given to Ontario programs. These funds would be utilized to teach immigrants how to make their training work in
Canada. However, the programs launched so far either have not been implemented with their true sprits or they are moving at a snail pace, losing their significance and importance and making insignificant impact. The information presented below after reviewing of the reports, articles and studies may be useful for the planners and policy makers for improving of the situation.

� There is the wastage of talents and skills of foreign trained professionals for not integrating them into the system. Un realization and under utilization of the skills of foreign trained professionals is the source of great disappointment and frustration.

� Research conducted by the Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD) based on the last census found that many recent immigrants; particularly visible minority immigrants have experienced high unemployment and underemployment in low wage jobs that do not match their skills and formal credentials. A provincial study revealed that only 25% immigrants were fortunate enough to work in their chosen fields.

� Even with higher levels of education and better skills, immigrants have greater difficulty integrating into the labour market than Canadian born workers with an equivalent education (Canada�s Innovation Strategy, Feb., 2002).

� In May 2002, Dr. Ross Finne of Queens University and Dr. Ronald Meng of University of Windsor published the findings of their research. They reported that immigrants� credentials and human capital skills were being discounted in Canada and naturally this adversely influenced their incomes (24% below than white Canadians).

� Results of an excellent research by Andrew Jackson and Ekuwa Smith of CCSD are worth reading and governing bodies of this country are requested to view the full document � (A decade of decline at www.uwgt.org) on the Internet. They found that recent immigrants to the city of Toronto were living in deep poverty, severely crowded housing and extremely low-income neighborhoods.

With great disappointment, it is reported that about 50-75% highly skilled professionals are not working in their disciplines. We should give a serious thought over the heart breaking miseries and sufferings of new comers and for a moment, please; imagine the quality of life the immigrants do have at present being below the poverty line.

According to tons of reports, articles, documents and the statements of government spokespersons �Canada was built by the immigrants�.

Is it true? If so � Do the patriotic and loving builders of this great country deserve this kind of treatment just because they were not born on this piece of land and come from outside with education from abroad?

There are 70,000 immigrants from Somalia in Ontario but there is not a single Somali language speaking medical doctor. It is pleasant to note that in Ontario about 150 foreign trained medical doctors would be absorbed in the system this year. Hon. Health Minister of Ontario announced that over the next 5 years; more 650 foreign trained doctors would be able to come back to the medical profession. Hon. Premiere and Hon. Minister Health announced this good news that brought a ray
of hope in our lives.

In response to this statement, I respectfully ask them the following simple 3 questions to keep our hopes alive and life rolling:
1. Are there only 800 foreign trained medical doctors in Ontario? If not, what would be fate of the rest of the doctors?
2. What would be quality of those professionals who would be kept out of their medical profession for 5 years?
3. How these out of their profession medical doctors are going to feed their families and dependents over the next 5 years?
Has the government chalked any mechanism for their survival?

Perhaps, the government has no definite reply to these questions. However, this deteriorating situation suggests launching programs in which new immigrants are employed leading them to permanent positions.
These programs would result some sort of satisfaction and would bring them out of the pain of uncertainty - at least for the time being. Instead of spending billions and billions on international development, please spend the same money for the betterment of the people of your own country.

Fact of the matter is that �New Canadians� are still more than willing to put their souls and hearts for the development of their new home to make its present more prosperous and to ensure its glorious future. We look forward to working with all partners to develop a shared vision and initiatives that will position Canada among the most rising and flourishing economies in the world. Now Canada is our home country and we have to decide in which shape we are handing it over to our children. Every single human being loves to leave the things in their best forms and conditions for his children. Wouldn�t we?          

Fast facts about the skilled immigrants in the Canadian workforce

� Canada has one of the most highly educated labor-force in the world. Immigrants currently make up 70 per cent of net growth in the labor force.

� By 2011, immigrants are expected to account for 100 per cent of net growth of the Canadian work world.

� About 250,346 new immigrants arrived in 2001 and 55 per cent of them are identified as skilled workers by Ottawa. The majority of them has university degrees and speaks English or French, or both. They are well educated PLUS they are pumping billions and billions of dollars in the booming economy of Canada.

� Canada wants a substitute of its aging population with a sizeable baby boom cohort. It is known that the average age of Canadian workers rose from 37.1 years to 39.0 years in 2001. Nearly 15% of the workforce was within 10 years of retirement age at the end of last decade. The projected estimates warn that by 2011, about one fifth of baby boomers in Canada will be at least 61.

� Added to this is fact that in Canada birth rats have declined in the last 30 years. Fewer young people are there to replace those getting close to their retirement.

� An educated, experienced and skilled workforce as Canada's skills deficit is expected to grow to a million workers. On the other hand, a wide gap between employment prospects for immigrants and for Canadian-born workers does exist.

� An annual income of an immigrant family is in rage of $12000-14000 as compared to Canadian family with $30,000. An average immigrant family is forced to live well below the poverty line and enjoys life in the severely crowded and unhygienic multistoried apartment buildings.

� In 2001, the unemployment rate for new immigrants aged 25 to 44 was double.

Prof. Dr. Baig has spent many years as the Special Graduate Faculty at the University of Guelph, Canada. He is an Executive Member of the Association of the Pakistani Professionals in Canada. The article is an edited version of his lecture delivered at the annual forum of the association, attended by many Canadian Ministers, Senators, Members of the Parliaments and the Consul General of Pakistan. This article has been written with good intention just to create a cautionary signal for those planning of burning their boats and settling in Canada. Please consider both the aspects of your migration before you leave. Email: [email protected]