Immigration to Canada drops by 25 per cent

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Nicholas Keung Immigration Reporter

Canada let 25 per cent fewer immigrants into the country in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2010, raising concerns the Conservative government is embarking on a bold plan to restrict the country’s immigration levels.
The number of permanent resident visas issued by Citizenship and Immigration Canada between January and March fell from 84,083 in 2010 to 63,224 this year, according to figures obtained by the Star.
The latest department numbers show a decline across the board, with visas for skilled workers down 28 per cent, family-sponsored relatives down 14 per cent, and refugees dropping by 25 per cent.
The significant drop in visas comes on the eve of public consultations Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is holding on the country’s immigration levels and classes of people that should be allowed in. The first meeting was held in Calgary last week, and another is scheduled in Toronto Wednesday.
“It’s a very sharp decline,” said Myer Siemiatycki, professor of politics and public administration at Ryerson University, referring to the visas granted. “It begs the question: What is going on here?
“Has the government decided on the outset that they want fewer admissions? Is the tap being closed tighter?”
In the months leading up to the May 2 federal election, the Conservatives touted 2010 as a banner year in immigration, welcoming 280,000 permanent residents, the highest in 50 years. In 2009, approximately 265,000 immigrants were granted permanent status.
Commenting on this year’s quarterly figures, immigration officials say it is unfair to use the 2010 numbers as a benchmark since it was a record year in granting permanent visas.
“The department is confident that irrespective of lower visas/authorizations issuance and admissions in the first quarter, it will meet its annual target of visas,” immigration spokesperson Nancy Caron wrote in an email to the Star.
Over the last 15 years, Canada’s annual immigration levels have remained around 250,000, about 0.8 per cent of the population.
The Conservative government has announced it intends slashing $4 billion in annual spending from the federal budget, raising fears of further cuts to the immigration system. More than $50 million was slashed this year in settlement services.
“The success (of immigration) is determined by the resources. This government has been cutting resources and a number of provinces have,” said New Democrat immigration critic Don Davies.
“In turn, it is going to put pressure on the number of immigrants we can appropriately absorb.”
Immigration lawyers say fewer permanent visas could mean bigger backlogs, especially for family sponsorships where there is no cap on applications like there is for skilled workers and investors.
“The real problem with backlogs are the parents . . . The math says people will die before seeing a visa,” said immigration lawyer and analyst Richard Kurland. “That is the major challenge to Canada’s immigration system today.”
Immigration lawyer Mario Bellissimo said he would not be surprised if the minister brings in a new law to cap family sponsorship applications. Since 2006, the number of visas for sponsored relatives and refugees has declined, while visas for workers have steadily increased.
“The (immigration) minister has the authority to decide who can come to Canada,” he said. “If we get more applications than we can process, we’re going to return them.”
Since 2008, the federal government has made numerous changes to its immigration program in an effort to eliminate backlogs and process applications in a more timely fashion. It counts on capping the number of immigration applications it accepts for processing.
A department backgrounder for the upcoming consultations, which are by invitation only, suggests while increasing immigration may be one way to solve the growing demand, “there are clearly a number of pressures that make trade-offs inevitable.”
With an aging population, “immigration levels will need to be raised to 350,000 annually to support Canada’s economic growth,” said Anne Golden, president and CEO of the Conference Board of Canada.
Ernst & Young business immigration lawyer Batia Stein said the biggest percentage drop in early 2011 comes in the federal skilled worker and Canada experience programs, which are designed to usher in immigrants most likely to succeed in the job market.
“If our goal is to attract global talent and combat our aging population, there’s some room there to do that,” she said.
Ryerson’s Siemiatycki said Canada has a capacity to take in as many as 450,000 immigrants a year by including the 200,000 temporary foreign workers that it lets in to fill labour market needs on a perennial basis.
According to the government’s consultation backgrounder, Canada would have to increase immigration to nearly 4 per cent of the population to stabilize its “old-age dependency ratio.”

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Saskatchewan leads Canada with lowest unemployment rate in country

For the second straight month, Saskatchewan’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was the lowest in Canada.

According to Statistics Canada, the province’s unemployment rate fell to 5.0 per cent in April, down 5.2 per cent from the previous month and 1.2 per cent lower year-over-year.

The national unemployment rate was 7.6 per cent in April.

Although the unemployment numbers dropped, there was a decrease of 1,800 people working full-time in the province from March to April with an increase of 1,800 in part-time jobs.

The Saskatchewan government noted the number of aboriginal youth working in the province jumped by 1,000, an increase of 11.6 per cent.

Rob Norris, Minister of Advanced Education, Employment and Immigration, says the lower unemployment numbers, along with recent reports from the Conference Board of Canada and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, point to a bright future for the province.

“Employers in our largest cities and across Saskatchewan are expressing confidence in their future and in the economic future of our province,” said Norris.

“Saskatchewan is and will continue to be the best place in Canada for skilled workers looking for new opportunities.”

© Copyright (c) CW Media Inc.

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SASKATCHEWAN’S UNEMPLOYMENT RATE STILL THE LOWEST IN CANADA

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Saskatchewan’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 5.0 per cent is the lowest in Canada for the second straight month – well below the national average of 7.6 per cent.

Advanced Education, Employment and Immigration Minister Rob Norris said the numbers support the Conference Board of Canada’s release earlier this week, which indicate Saskatoon and Regina will have the first and third highest economic growth rates in the country in 2011.

Norris also pointed to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’s April Business Barometer, which shows that small business optimism in Saskatchewan has hit a three-year high. The report notes that 29 per cent of Saskatchewan employers expect to add full-time staff over the next three to four months.

“Employers in our largest cities and across Saskatchewan are expressing confidence in their future and in the economic future of our province,” Norris said. “As a result, Saskatchewan is and will continue to be the best place in Canada for skilled workers looking for new opportunities.”

April also marks nine consecutive months of year-over-year increases in employment for Aboriginal Youth, which jumped by 1,000, or 11.6 per cent.

Norris noted a strong April for www.saskjobs.ca, where Saskatchewan employers posted 11,410 jobs – an 18 per cent year-over-year increase and the largest monthly total since October of 2008.

“With more than 8,000 jobs available right now, I encourage everyone to visit SaskJobs and see the opportunities our province has to offer,” Norris said.

-30-

For more information, contact:

Christopher Jones-Bonk
Advanced Education, Employment and Immigration
Regina
Phone: 306-798-3106
Email: chris.jones-bonk@gov.sk.ca

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The Manitoba miracle

Image via WikipediaSix years ago, Rylan Hart, a contractor from Winnipeg, packed up his tool box and headed west. While Manitoba’s economy was expected to continue plodding along, British Columbia was on the cusp of a housing boom, and as a skilled tradesman he was perfectly positioned for the windfall when it came. But Hart had been warned by veterans of B.C.’s “roller coaster” construction sector not to expect the good times to last, and they didn’t. The combination of recession, an Olympic hangover and the new harmonized sales tax sent shivers through his industry. “Everything just tanked,” says Hart, 35. So in July he did what a lot of others in the Manitoban diaspora have done over the last year—he packed up and headed back to the Prairies.
But if the Winnipeg that Hart left was dull but stable—it’s often said Manitoba doesn’t suffer economic slumps because it never enjoys boom times in the first place—the Winnipeg he returned to, with its luxury condo projects, massive housing developments and stunningly low unemployment, is scarcely recognizable. “From the moment I got back I’ve been going full tilt,” he says. “I keep having to tell [potential clients], ‘No, I’m too busy.’ I’ve already got work until at least next spring lined up.”

By many measures, Manitoba has emerged as the shining star of Canada’s recession and subsequent recovery. True, economic growth fell to zero last year, but that meant it was the only province that didn’t shrink. And with the recovery in full swing, Manitoba enjoys the lowest unemployment rate in the country, at 5.2 per cent, compared to a national average of 7.9 per cent and 8.6 per cent in Ontario. The housing market is going strong, and Manitobans are outspending their countrymen at the mall and at car dealerships. “The mood is very optimistic here,” says Dave Angus, president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce. “Psychologically, our ability to weather the economic storm has been huge.”
There are several reasons for all this. The one economists typically point to first is the diversity of its economy. No other province has as eclectic a mix of businesses and services at its core. There are Manitoba’s vast fields of wheat and other crops, of course, which in a similar way helped American states like North and South Dakota and Nebraska survive the recession easily. But crop production makes up just five per cent of the Manitoba economy. Far more important are sectors like manufacturing, with its focus on aerospace and buses, as well as financial services, transportation, and mining and petroleum production. “Manitoba is the most diverse of all the provinces,” says Paul Ferley, assistant chief economist for the Royal Bank of Canada. “In booming times you don’t see Manitoba at the top end, but in periods of economic weakness it usually doesn’t show the extreme declines.”
But that doesn’t tell the full story of how the province dodged the Great Recession bullet. Even before infrastructure became the buzzword of the global recovery, Manitoba had a number of high-profile projects on the go that helped shield it from the downturn, such as the $800-million expansion of the Red River floodway, a $585-million project to expand Winnipeg’s airport, and the construction of the 23-storey Manitoba Hydro tower in downtown Winnipeg. While construction on those projects has largely wrapped up, work is under way on the Canadian Museum of Human Rights, and the province appears intent on building a new stadium for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, even though the price tag has soared 40 per cent to $160 million.
There’s an obvious theme to many of those projects—they wouldn’t be happening without massive spending by all levels of government. Critics argue that government spending is crowding out private investment and inflicting long-term damage to the economy. Manitoba has the highest net provincial debt as a share of its economy of any of the western provinces, at 24.4 per cent, though that’s still far below the Canadian provincial average of 37.6 per cent. And, ironically, as a have-not economy Manitoba relies heavily on the generosity of Ontario taxpayers as well as Alberta through federal-provincial transfers. It’s led Peter Holle, president of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, to label Manitoba a “zombie economy.”
But those concerns have taken a back seat as the job market and consumer confidence have heated up. Retail sales in the province climbed 6.6 per cent in August from the year before, while the country as a whole managed an increase of just 3.5 per cent.
On a recent Saturday, a cold wind failed to keep car buyers away from Birchwood BMW on the western edge of Winnipeg. Francis Fang, an accountant, strolled between shiny black Bimmers on the hunt for a sports coupe to go with the Mercedes C-Class he recently bought. “I’ve travelled to Calgary and Vancouver and you could just feel things were more depressed,” he says. “We’d watch the recession on the news, but you didn’t feel it through your work or your jobs.” It’s been a similar story at the Gauthier Cadillac Buick GMC dealership in the city’s north end. “We’re seeing it from the front line,” says vice-president Jason Cross. GMC truck sales have doubled over the last year. Not surprisingly, national retail chains have taken note. Ikea has announced plans to open its first store in the city, possibly in 2012.
Low unemployment in Manitoba isn’t necessarily a new phenomenon, but in the past it’s been driven by the fact so many people leave the province to look for work elsewhere. Manitoba still suffers from negative net interprovincial migration, but that has slowed down and is more than made up for by a healthier inflow of foreign immigrants. (Over the last year, the province saw its highest population growth since 1982.) Manitoba has been the most aggressive of all the provinces at using the Provincial Nominee Program to lure skilled immigrants, says Mario Lefebvre, director of the Centre for Municipal Studies at the Conference Board of Canada. Manitoba now attracts roughly 13,000 immigrants a year, which, given the size of the province’s population, is a rate on par with Toronto’s. Manitoba’s immigration strategy got a shout-out from the New York Times recently, when the paper hailed Winnipeg as “a hub of parka-clad diversity.” It’s helped drive the local housing market—even amid the recession, housing starts came in at around 4,200 last year, one of the highest levels since the 1980s.
Can Manitoba keep it going? Ferley at RBC believes economic growth in Manitoba will actually come in below the national average this year, partly because grain production is down 25 per cent due to poor weather, and because other provinces that saw their economies hit hard are enjoying a strong rebound. But Ferley expects growth in Manitoba to pull ahead again next year, hitting 3.7 per cent, a full percentage point above the national average.
Problems persist, of course. Incomes in Manitoba still lag far behind those in other western provinces. Downtown Winnipeg continues to suffer from poverty and high crime rates. And one of the big lures for former residents boomeranging back to Manitoba has been affordable house prices and a lower cost of living—both of which are at risk as a result of the housing boom. But for now, Manitoba’s fortunes appear to finally be moving in the right direction. “This is a great place to be right now,” says Hart, the contractor who returned this past summer. “I’m very happy with the way things are going, and I don’t plan on leaving any time soon.”

Source: http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/12/06/the-manitoba-miracle/

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New Study Finds Immigrants Vital for Canada

Image via WikipediaTORONTO (IDN) - Immigration and innovation are closely linked, and because innovation is the sine qua non of competitiveness in the twenty-first century world, immigrants as innovators play a critical role in boosting Canada's global competitiveness.

This is the main thrust of a new research report by the Conference Board of Canada released in October 2010. The 60-page study by Michelle Downie is intended to help government and business recognize the potential value of immigration to innovation performance, which would make Canada a more innovative country. Underlying the report is a comprehensive approach to understanding and quantifying the relationship between immigration and innovation.

In an attempt to find a convincing reply to whether immigrants are making Canada more innovative, Downie argues, "immigrants are by definition seekers of a better way -- the very embodiment of innovation". The purpose of the research report, he adds, is to test this presumption.

Therefore,it examines different dimensions of innovation across areas such as research, the culture sector, business, and global commerce, as well as at the level of the individual immigrant, the firm, and the national and international economy. "At every level of analysis, immigrants are shown to have an impact on innovation performance that is benefiting Canada," concludes Downie.

The report titled 'Immigrants as Innovators: Boosting Canada’s Global Competitiveness' also highlights actions that Canada can take to develop the innovative capacities of immigrants and harness the benefits of immigrant-driven innovation.

The report comes at the right point in time. According to the latest Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011, released by the World Economic Forum, Canada has slipped from ninth to tenth place. The United States is fourth behind Switzerland, Sweden and Singapore.

Until recently, Canada topped for having minimum procedures for starting a new business and held a respectable ninth position for the time required to start a business.

Canada has indeed the potential to be higher than its present position with the second largest territorial mass in the world, rich with natural resources, including the increasingly scarce resource of clean water and a low population density at 34 million people.

More immigrants per capita than any other country in the world move to Canada every year. In 2006, Canada welcomed 251,511 immigrants, most of them highly skilled, through its doors. Yet there is a pressing need for more immigration, the Conference Board estimates that 375,000 new immigrants are required every year in order to stabilize the workforce and ensure economic growth.

At present, however, Canada is a consistent below-average performer in its capacity to innovate: ranks 14th out of 17 industrialized countries in the Board's report card.

The Conference Board is an independent, not-for-profit applied research organization in Canada, affiliated with, The Conference Board, Inc. of New York, which serves nearly 2,000 companies in 60 nations and has offices in Brussels and Hong Kong.

The conclusions of the Conference Board's report are indirectly backed by Steven Johnson's latest book 'Where good ideas come from: The natural history of innovation'. The renowned author takes a look at how some of the world's greatest thinkers came to the conclusions that changed our world. He argues that the lone genius is the exception rather than the rule, and that innovation is usually a far slower, more collaborative process.

'LIQUID NETWORK'

Johnson defines innovation as occurring when "we take ideas from other people -- from people we've learned from, from people we run into in the coffee shop, and we stitch them together into new forms, and we create something new. This means that we have to change some of our models of what innovation and deep thinking really looks like."

He calls this the "liquid network" -- an environment that enables the coming together of ideas, in sometimes unpredictable but satisfying combinations.

"Job creation, the success of our entrepreneurial class and our economic vitality here in Canada depends on the creation of these liquid networks," said Gordon Nixon, president of the Royal Bank of Canada at a conference on innovation.

"Earlier this month (October 4, 2010) the Globe and Mail announced the findings of a C-Suite survey, which puts the blame for this country's poor track record on innovation squarely on C-Suite executives. According to my peers who were polled for this study, the two top factors important in explaining weak Canadian productivity is business leaders' risk aversion and a culture of complacency... This is a country that to a large degree has been built by newcomers willing to take risks," he added.

He said those attitudes should now help Canada shift to a culture of innovation at a time when many established executives are complacent and risk-averse.

Immigrants face too many "onerous and unnecessary" obstacles which limit their potential to inject life into the country's flailing innovation performance and full participating in the economy.

"Innovation, R&D, Venture Capital -- that is the equation we must solve for and they are all interrelated.

"I say this because Canada's labour productivity level in the business sector has been lower than that of the US for almost 50 years. And a recent report by the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity shows that if the GDP per capita gap between the US and Canada were closed, Canadian families would have $12,200 more in annual personal disposable income," Nixon pointed out.

"Canada cannot continue to ask immigrants to sacrifice their short-term success in the interests of future generations. The impact of this lost productivity on our collective prosperity cannot be overstated. As the country begins to climb out of the recession, the government needs to engage Canadians, both new and old, and begin a discussion on our future and our immigration program," writes Ratna Omidvar, president of the Toronto-based Maytree Foundation, an agency promoting workplace diversity and author of Canada's Immigration Score: Recommendations for a Win-Win, published in the July-August issue of Policy Options.

There is a lack of recognition of international experience and qualifications which leads to discrimination or underutilization of their skills.

According to research by Naomi Alboim, Ross Finnie and Ronald Meng published by the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP), Canada should provide more points for young people and fewer for work experience. As it is, international experience is discounted by a factor of almost 70 per cent by employers in labour market. To continue to allot points for international work experience is disingenuous at best. Younger people, even those with little work experience, have long careers ahead of them to contribute to the Canadian economy.

Business leaders must take a stronger lead in addressing these challenges. Employers can start by conveying a strong message to new Canadians that they value them as creators, innovators and highly skilled workers whose performance improves results. They should also take advantage of the fact that immigrants can open doors to investment opportunities overseas and help attract foreign investment in Canada.

According to an OECD study, diversity has also been associated with an increase in patents. More than a quarter of patents in Canada have foreign co-inventors.

Two prime examples of how integrating immigrant workers can bolster innovation are:

Xerox Canada, with half of its staff who are immigrants from 35 different countries, credits immigrants with boosting its innovation rate, which has reached about 130 patentable ideas a year. It says its staff are also helping the company better compete in a global market.

Toronto-based Steam Whistle Brewing, the beer maker with more than half of the management team as immigrants, says the composition means a stronger work ethic, while foreign-born workers bring new techniques and fresh perspectives to the job. It also helps them understand a diverse marketplace.

"I absolutely believe that ongoing immigration is going to turbo-charge this economy going forward," said Loudon Owen, managing partner of venture capital firm McLean Watson Capital.

Immigrants have a fresh view of Canada, and bring ideas from their country of origin that may be new to Canada, he said. "They are often driven to succeed in ways that Canadians aren't," he added.

Copyright © 2010 IDN-InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

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Canada holds immigration levels steady

Image via WikipediaThe federal government wants to keep Canada's immigration levels steady next year but change the mix of newcomers, limiting economic immigrants and boosting the number of spouses and children.
In its annual report to Parliament on immigration, the Conservative government says it aims to take in between 240,000 and 265,000 new permanent residents next year. That's the same target as this year and last.


But Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is looking to cut the economic class of immigrants by about 5,000 people – despite highlighting the growing dependence of the Canadian workforce on immigrant labour.
“Canada's post-recession economy demands a high level of legal immigration to keep our workforce strong,” Mr. Kenney said in a news release.
Provinces are taking a growing role in selecting economic immigrants, the report notes. As the number of federally selected newcomers in the economic class drops back, the number of provincially selected workers is climbing.
Mr. Kenney is increasing the target range for spouses and children, to a high of 48,000 – up from 45,000 in 2010, and back to the historical norm.
He is also expecting the number of refugees to rise, partly because the government has committed to doubling the number it resettles from overseas refugee camps.
“These refugees are selected and screened by Canada, and come here legally,” Mr. Kenney said. “We look forward to giving them a safe, new beginning.”
By keeping immigration levels steady, Mr. Kenney is walking a fine line between those who want levels to rise steadily to deal with an expected worker shortage, and those who want to cut back dramatically on newcomers until well after the recession.
Glen Hodgson, chief economist at the Conference Board of Canada, argues that the recession prompted a temporary glut in workers. As the economy recovers, and as retirements soar, he figures Canada will require about 350,000 immigrants a year by 2030 in order to keep its workforce growing.
Plus, Ottawa needs to make sure those immigrants meet the labour market's needs, Mr. Hodgson says.
“A reinvigorated immigration policy, growing toward 350,000 by about 2030, will need to recognize the importance of skills-based immigration to address Canada's labour market needs and to unlock immigrants' potential for making a long-term economic contribution,” he writes in a recent article.
But a new, conservative group of immigration experts wants Mr. Kenney to go the other way.
“It makes no sense to maintain high levels of immigration when large numbers of Canadians are unemployed,” the Centre for Immigration Policy Reform says.
Canadians can confront the coming skills shortage by themselves, by improving their own training and working later in life, the centre's website states.
“There will be no such shortages if more Canadians acquire the needed skills, which can be accomplished if wages, government policies and other conditions encourage them to do so and the jobs are not filled by immigrants.”
For Mr. Kenney, the answer for now is to keep the immigration levels the same, but to focus on integrating newcomers more effectively so that the Canadian workforce can benefit fully from their training and expertise.
“Immigrants arrive in Canada with degrees and experience in skilled occupations such as medicine or engineering. Yet, many are unable to fill the critical positions our labour force desperately needs,” Mr. Kenney said in a speech on Monday.
“It isn't because they are unqualified or that they don't have the skills these positions demand, it's just that they are unable to transfer their international education and experience into Canadian workplaces in a timely manner.”

Source: The Globe and Mail

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Improved innovation in Canada linked to immigration

Image by Ninja M. via Flickr

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's recent comments about the failure of multiculturalism, while controversial, were nothing new for Europeans. Former British prime minister Tony Blair seems to have started the ball rolling in 2006, when he told immigrants to "conform ... or don't come here," and since then, many European leaders have echoed such sentiments.
Given the problems Europe has experienced -- the London bombings of 2005, civil unrest in Paris, and the failure to integrate Muslim Turks in Germany -- the comments aren't terribly surprising. But one must be careful not to assume that these events are simply the fault of an ill-defined policy like multiculturalism -- or worse, the fault of freeloading immigrants.
Germany's problems with Muslim Turks, for example, has little to do with multiculturalism. The Turks were originally considered guest workers, and as Merkel herself admitted, everyone expected them to return home at some point. This is not multiculturalism, and is no way to ensure a lasting contribution from foreign-born workers.
Merkel did, however, advocate for the integration of immigrants, and asked how that's best accomplished. One answer is to look to Canada, which, of course, has a long-standing and sometimes controversial policy of official multiculturalism, and which has also benefited enormously from the contribution of immigrants.
This is the conclusion of a new report, Immigrants as Investors: Boosting Canada's Global Competitiveness, from the Conference Board of Canada. The report set out to test the presumption that immigrants are likely to be highly innovative, and, according to Diana MacKay, director of education and health for the board, "At every level we examined -- individual, organization, national and global -- immigrants were associated with increased innovation in Canada."
Among the specifics, the report found that 35 per cent of Canada Research Chairs are foreign-born, even though immigrants make up just one-fifth of the Canadian population. Further, immigrants win proportionally more prestigious literary and performing arts prizes, such as the Giller Prize and the Governor-General's Performing Arts Awards.
Perhaps not so surprisingly, immigration also affects trade levels between Canada and immigrants' countries of origin. According to the report, a one-percentage-point increase in immigrants can increase the value of imports by 0.21 per cent and raise the value of exports by 0.11 per cent. Also not surprisingly, foreign direct investment into Canada is greater from countries that are well represented in Canada through immigration.
Hence, whatever the supposed drawbacks of multiculturalism, Canada's immigrants have made important contributions to Canadian society. But things are not perfect, as the report notes that immigrants face many obstacles, including inadequate recognition of their international experience and qualifications, failure of employers to utilize immigrants' foreign language skills and lack of opportunities for newcomers to use their skills.
That returns us to Merkel's question about how best to achieve integration. And on that point, the report advises that employers hire immigrants at every level of their organizations, including leadership roles, match the diversity of their staff to their markets, and encourage immigrants to share their views.
This last recommendation is particularly important, as there's no better way to improve integration than to ask immigrants what they need to function effectively in Canadian society. And that doesn't in any way conflict with multiculturalism. Rather, it serves to respect the values of immigrants while, as the Conference Board report makes clear, also helping to improve conditions for all Canadians.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

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Immigration aids innovation: report

Immigrants punch above their weight when it comes to increasing the rate of innovation in Canada, the Conference Board of Canada said in a report released Friday.
The ambition that leads them to move to a new country tends to predispose immigrants to the kind of risk-taking that leads to innovation, Michelle Downie, the report's author, told CBC News.
A study suggests better integrating immigrants will help Canada overcome its poor record on innovation. (CBC) "They tend to be very driven and they want to exceed their own expectations, so they're always pursuing more and trying to work harder."
An earlier report by the Conference Board, an Ottawa-based non-profit research organization, suggested Canada lags behind other advanced economies in innovation, ranking it 14th out of 17 in its capacity to develop new approaches in research and development.
The study, which reviewed existing research from various sources but also included interviews with executives, found that immigrants were associated with increased innovation in Canada.
The board said the interview sample was not large enough to be representative of all Canadian business, but found a number of measures that suggest employers benefit from hiring and integrating immigrants.

'Diversity of perspective is very important to innovation.'—Michelle Downie, report author

Sometimes, the fact that their views diverge from mainstream corporate culture is what makes their advice more valuable.
"That diversity of perspective is very important to innovation," said Downie.
"If you have people with the same experiences looking at the same problem, they may not see it in a different way. Sometimes bringing somebody in with a new perspective, who's had a different life experience, has had different training, they can see a problem a little differently and they might come up with a new solution."
The study also found immigrants pull above their weight in contributing to advanced research.
Although immigrants represent 20 per cent of the population, at least 35 per cent of university research chairs are foreign born.
It also suggested immigration resulted in increased trade with immigrants' countries of origin.
The Conference Board's model suggested a one-percentage-point increase in the number of immigrants could increase imports by 0.21 per cent and raise exports to countries of origin by 0.11 per cent.
Downie's research also suggested foreign direct investment into Canada was greater from countries that are well represented in Canada through immigration.

Obstacles limit contribution

But it also determined that immigrants face obstacles that limit their ability to contribute as innovators, including inadequate recognition of their experience and qualifications, and the failure of employers to use their knowledge of foreign languages in tapping into international markets.
Ottawa introduced measures in 2009 to speed up the recognition of foreign credentials and has expanded the role of overseas offices to better prepare immigrants before they enter the labour force here.
"It is hopefully going to make a difference for the regulated professions [such as accounting or engineering]," said Downie.
Downie found about half the executives interviewed were taking steps to better use their immigrant employees.
"There are a number of employers who are taking steps to ask their employees, particularly their immigrant employees, about the knowledge they have of diverse markets or how they can use their language abilities to help them in a new markets," she said.


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2010/10/15/immigration-innovation-report.html#ixzz12U24nJvf

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Immigrants help boost Canada’s innovation

Image via Wikipedia

Nicholas Keung Immigration Reporter

Guang Jun Liu arrived in Toronto in 1990 with a master’s degree in robotic control from China.Today, the Ryerson University professor is the Canada Research Chair in control systems and robotics, specializing in control systems in aircraft and mobile robots, and working with groups such as the Canadian Space Agency.
According to a new Conference Board of Canada study, Liu is living proof of how immigrants can help boost Canada’s stature in innovation, which ranks 14th out of 17 industrialized countries.
“Productivity and innovation are critical for economic development,” said the report, titled Immigrants as Innovators: Boosting Canada’s Global Competitiveness. “At every level of analysis, immigrants are shown to have an impact on innovation performance that is benefiting Canada.”
Examining the relationship between immigrants and innovation in areas such as research, culture, business and global commerce, the report found that:
 •  At least 35 per cent of an estimated 1,800 Canada Research Chairs are foreign-born, even though immigrants are just one-fifth of the Canadian population.
 •  Immigrants to Canada win proportionally more prestigious literary and performing arts awards, comprising 23 per cent of Giller Prize finalists and 29 per cent of winners; 23 per cent of Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards winners are immigrants;
 •  Immigration increases innovation by expanding Canada’s trade relations. A 1 per cent increase in the number of immigrants to Canada corresponds to an increase in imports of 0.21 per cent and exports by 0.11 per cent.
Yet, despite the enormous benefits that newcomers can bring to Canada, the report notes they still face “onerous and often unnecessary obstacles” that limit their potential.
These include inadequate recognition of international experience and qualifications, failure of employers to tap foreign language skills which could be employed in international markets, and lack of opportunities for newcomers to fully use their skills
Liu said he, too, had a tough time when he first came to Canada as a visiting scholar and later enrolled in the University of Toronto’s robot control PhD program.
“Language is a big obstacle. Technically, my English was good, but you need to be able to speak good English and communicate well to get published,” he said. “I was lucky to get my credentials recognized and have had some good employers.”
The report recommends employers hire immigrants at all levels of their organization, including in leadership roles; match the staff’s diversity to that of their markets; and encourage immigrant employees to share their diverse points of view, a key for innovation.
Innovative Immigrants in Canada
 •  K.Y. Ho came from China in 1984 and started the graphics company ATI with two other immigrants from Hong Kong. The company pulled in $10 million in revenue in its first year and was acquired for $5.4 billion by AMD in 2007.
 •  Mike Lazaridis came from Turkey in 1966 and founded Research in Motion (RIM), which created and manufactures the BlackBerry.
 •  Peter Munk came from Hungary in the 1940s and founded Barrick Gold, the world’s largest gold-mining corporation.
 •  Stella Melo came from Brazil in 1996. An atmospheric physicist, she has developed equipment and models to study the conditions of the atmosphere. The data she collects are used for weather forecasting and to examine people’s long-term impacts on the planet.
Source: Immigrants as Innovators: Boosting Canada’s Global Competitiveness

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U.S. might pick up tips from Canada’s economic rebound

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Washington — Whatever else they’ve thought about their neighbor to the north, Americans have almost never looked to Canada as a role model.
Indeed, during the long, bitter push to revamp the U.S. health care system, opponents repeatedly warned that if we weren’t careful, we could end up with a medical system like Canada’s.


But on health care, and such crucial issues as the deficit, unemployment, immigration and prospering in the global economy, Canada seems to be outperforming the United States. And in doing so, it is offering examples of successful strategies that Americans might consider.
While the United States, Japan and much of Europe are struggling with massive fiscal deficits, Canada’s financial house is tidy and secure. Most economists say it will take years for the United States to make up the 8 million-plus jobs lost during the recession, but Canada — despite its historic role as a major supplier for the still-troubled U.S. auto industry — already has recovered essentially all of the jobs it lost.
Meanwhile, as Americans continue their grueling battle over immigration, Canadians have united behind a policy that emphasizes opening the door to tens of thousands of skilled professionals, entrepreneurs and other productive workers who have played an important role in strengthening the Canadian economy.
Granted, Canada’s problem with illegal immigration is smaller, and its economy does not match the scale and dynamic productivity of the world’s largest. But on the most troubling issues of the day, the U.S. is locked in near-paralyzing political and ideological debates, while those issues are hardly raising eyebrows in Canada.
“We did a lot of things right going into the financial crisis,” said Glen Hodgson, senior vice president at the Conference Board of Canada, a business-membership and research group in Ottawa.
One of the most important, he said: Back in the 1990s, Canada cleaned up the fiscal mess that most every developed nation is now facing.
Earlier that decade, Canada too was straining from years of excessive government spending that bloated the nation’s total debts, to 70 percent of annual economic output — a figure the U.S. is projected to approach in two years.
As with Greece, Portugal and Spain this year, Canada’s credit rating was downgraded in the early 1990s, sharply raising its borrowing costs. With its economy suffering and pressure mounting from international investors — Wall Street bankers in particular — Canadian officials slashed spending for social programs and shifted more of the cost burden to provincial governments, which almost everyone in Canada felt.
With the economic downturn, Canada pumped up public spending to stimulate growth, as other nations did. Still, its fiscal shortfall this year is projected at $33 billion, comfortably below the 3 percent-of-GDP threshold that economists consider a manageable level of debt.
Washington’s deficit this fiscal year is estimated by the Congressional Budget Office at $1.35 trillion — or 9.2 percent of projected GDP.
The United States’ larger size — its population and economy are roughly 10 times those of Canada — makes direct comparisons difficult. And many Canadians readily acknowledge that American entrepreneurship and productivity are enviably stronger.
“U.S. businesses are certainly looking at lessons learned from Canada,” said Bart van Ark, chief economist at the Conference Board in New York. “In a nutshell, Canada has been very pragmatic in dealing with the economy.”
Canada’s approach to immigration is one example. With one of the highest immigration rates in the world, Canada has been receiving about 250,000 permanent residents annually. About one-fourth of the new arrivals gain entry through family relations, but more than 60 percent are admitted as “economic immigrants” — that is, skilled workers, entrepreneurs and investors.
In the U.S., it’s basically the reverse: Most of the 1 million-plus permanent residents received annually have been family-sponsored; only about 1 in 7 are admitted based on employment preferences. That is, Washington emphasizes bringing in family members of immigrants already in the U.S. Ottawa puts the emphasis on admitting those who can contribute to the economy.

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Immigration policies must improve to meet economic needs: Report

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OTTAWA — Immigration policies need to be modernized to avoid a stifling of economic growth in the future caused by labour shortages, according to a new report from the Conference Board of Canada.
The Ottawa-based think-tank suggests, among other things, placing more importance on the skills of prospective immigrants and whether they match the labour-force needs of Canada.
The report, written by the Conference Board's chief economist Glen Hodgson, said the recent recession provided some relief from tight labour markets.
However, he predicted the supply of workers will soon become an issue for the country's economic development with steady job growth once again the norm, and the large baby-boomer generation either at or approaching retirement age.
Hodgson wrote: "A country's long-term potential for economic growth, or at least sustainable economic growth, is essentially driven by three factors: growth in the labour force (and total hours worked), investment in physical capital and increased productivity."
He said that while Canada has generally outperformed other industrialized countries in labour-force growth in recent decades, it has lagged in capital investments and improving productivity.
Hodgson reasoned that, without improved immigration policies, Canada will hit a wall in terms of growing the workforce, given that the current birthrate of 1.66 children per woman is far from the level of 2.1 that's considered enough to sustain a population.
The Conference Board report recommends: more weight be given to immigration applicants' skills in relation to Canada's needs: that immigration processes and policies be streamlined between different levels of governments; an expansion in the use of temporary foreign workers to fill short-term needs; involving employers more in the immigration decision-making process; making it easier for temporary foreign workers and foreign students to become permanent residents; and improved recognition of foreign professional credentials.
While promoting more consideration of economic elements in immigration, Hodgson doesn't recommend doing away with other factors such as family unification, humanitarian reasons and protecting refugees.
"An easy way to achieve the economic objective would be to maintain the number of annual immigrants meeting social objectives or criteria and steadily increase the number selected by economic factors," he said.
The Conference Board's report assumes the rate of immigration will grow to about 350,000 per year by 2030 from the government's current target of as much as 265,000.
Despite urging more co-ordinated immigration programs between different levels of government, the Conference Board is not recommending the federal government have a monopoly on this area of public policy.
"Since provincial governments tend to be closer to the ground in terms of their interface with business, their engagement is essential," the report said.

© The Financial Post

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