Current Canadian Immigration News Stories from Reliable Sources

Though immigration to Canada’s northern territories is small by comparison to the immigration flow to Canadian provinces, the number of newcomers deciding to live in the Northwest Territories (NWT), the Yukon, and Nunavut is on the increase.  In response to this, there have been new immigrant settlement service agencies setting up in the northern territories to help newcomers with the transition into Canadian society and the Canadian workforce.

The new Canadian Multicultural Program has recently been established in Yellowknife, NWT.  It is part of the Centre for Northern Families and works with immigrants to help them with language training, immigration and citizenship issues, and settlement issues.  The Canadian Multicultural Program offers a number of social networking programs to help newcomers integrate into the community.  It offers a computer lab where new immigrants have access to the internet for learning purposes and to stay connected with their families.  There is also a multicultural collective kitchen where immigrants can share their culture and network.

“It’s tough for any family (to immigrate) and that’s why we need the program.  We help them to cope,” explained Ana Perdomo, the director of the Canadian Multicultural Program.  “It’s not just information, they need more than that.”  The program runs on donations and funding from the NWT Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

Source: Northern News Service

The British Columbia (BC) provincial government has signed a two-year memorandum of understanding with the Philippine government to help fill provincial labour shortages with skilled Filipino workers.  The agreement, signed by BC Economic Development Minister Colin Hansen and Philippine Labour Secretary Arturo Brion, will strengthen relations between BC employers and Philippine recruiters.  It targets skilled workers in the tourism, hospitality, retail, and construction sectors (chronic labour shortage sectors in BC), by providing more effective access to skilled foreign workers.

“The government of the Philippines is particularly receptive to partnering on international recruitment,” stated Secretary Arturo.  BC is the second jurisdiction in North America after Saskatchewan to establish a partnership for recruiting Filipino skilled workers.  The Philippines is currently the third largest source country for immigrants to BC.  “The British Columbia economy is growing at a rate faster than the overall Canadian economy and definitely faster than the overall American economy,” stated Minister Hansen.  “To maintain this momentum, we need to attract 30,000 workers per year with specific skills from outside B.C.”

The British Columbia and Philippine governments will work with Filipino recruitment agencies, who will ensure that the foreign workers are eligible to work in Canada (based on medical history, criminal history, language skills, and employment skills).  BC employers are responsible for paying the costs related to hiring workers.

Source: Government of British Columbia

According to a recent Statistics Canada report, immigrants who settle in smaller Canadian cities and rural areas are better off financially than those who head to larger urban areas.  The Perspectives on Labour and Income study finds that the earnings gap between newcomers and Canadians is significantly less in smaller towns than in big cities.  Furthermore, that gap narrows much more quickly in small towns. 

Nonetheless, the vast majority of immigrants decide to settle in Canada’s largest cities (Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver), in which they will find a larger network of people from their home country.  Many small cities are trying to create awareness to attract more immigrants to their communities for population and labour force growth.  This new report should provide them some ammunition.

Newcomers to small towns earns on average 14 per cent less than the Canadian-born population during their first three years in Canada.  By the fourth year of residence, these immigrants earn slightly more on average than native-born residents, and by their 11th year, earnings are 18 per cent above the median.  Income disparity is much larger for newcomers in big cities with the wage gap persisting even after ten years of residence.

Statistics Canada hypothesizes that education and language barriers are easier to overcome in smaller towns.  Learning one of Canada’s official languages is easier in an area where there is less language diversity.  Three quarters of immigrants in smaller cities are fluent in English or French, compared to 61.5 per cent of those in large cities.  Additionally, given current labour shortages, there are many job opportunities for skilled workers in smaller cities.  Immigrants with university degrees are well represented in these areas.  “It’s just easier for immigrants to connect with employers in smaller communities, where the chambers of commerce, councils, employers and service agencies all know each other and work as a team to develop immigrant attraction and retention plans,” explained a professor at the University of Winnipeg.

Source: CanWest News; Toronto Star

The shortage of information technology (IT) workers that is looming in Canada could cripple the sector and seriously impact the Canadian economy, says a recent report by a coalition of industry professionals.  The report, published by the Conference Board of Canada, projects the creation of 58,000 new jobs in the industry next year and more than 90,000 vacancies in the next three to five years.  The economic impact of the shortage could potentially be as much as $10.6 billion.

Computer science graduates in Canada have become increasingly rare.  Undergraduate enrolment in the discipline is down about 50 per cent since its peak in 2002, the year following the tech bust.  Phil Sorgen, President of Microsoft Canada stated that Canadian universities produce only enough graduates to fill one of every five new jobs created annually.  Microsoft Canada, like many other Canadian tech companies are scouting markets around the world to recruit more IT workers to Canada.

Last month, Bell Canada formed the Canadian Coalition for IT Succession, a group of two dozen companies to tackle the chronic unemployment problems in the industry.  The group wants to see changes to foreign immigration policies to make it easier to bring in foreign IT talent quickly.  The have already distributed the Conference Board of Canada’s report to immigration officials. 

The coalition is also working with Canadian universities and schools to change perceptions about IT professions to try and convince more Canadians to enroll in these programs.  Bell is also working on its own program, called First Jobs, which will attempt to fast-track qualified foreign workers into jobs in Canada.

Source: IT World Canada; Financial Post; Globe and Mail