The Pathway Clear to Canada

By: Hanna Eliasson

Canada has become an increasingly attractive study destination for international students. In the last 10 years, the number of foreign students has doubled, making Canada one of the most popular destinations among international students in the world. Education institutions and the different levels of government are now working closely to help international students with Canadian credentials apply for permanent residency in Canada, if they wish to do so. Typically, half of the international post-secondary students studying in Canadasubmit requests for permanent residency after graduation. Through the help of programmes like the ‘Canadian Experience Class’ and the "Provincial Nominee Programmes", about 86 percent of these applications are approved. The "Canadian Experience Class" is a federal programme directly targeting international students’ transition to permanent residency. Introduced in 2008, the Canadian Experience Class allows international students to make an easier transition to permanent residency. As a result, post-secondary institutions are now key factors in Canada’s immigration system.  The federal government projects granting permanent residency to up to 25,000 immigrants a year (for both international students and temporary foreign workers) by 2014. Attracting international students to Canada is a priority at all levels of the government and educational institutions. International students contribute approximately C$6.5 billion (US$6.4 billion) to the Canadian economy not to mention intangibles to which a price tag cannot be placed such as skills, innovation and diversification. According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), students are currently an immigration priority and there has been a shift in thinking from "temporary residents, to a pool of highly-qualified permanent residents." In Canada, where immigration will soon account for all net population growth, and where a majority of new jobs will require a post-secondary education, new immigration strategies that attempt to leverage and harness the skills of international students are being implemented. Naomi Alboim, Maytree Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor at the School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University, has noted that immigration policy shifts in Canada have been made with student migration in mind, based on the assumption that international students will be able to avoid those barriers regularly encountered highly-skilled immigrants, by virtue of their Canadian education, language skills and work experience. Preliminary research suggests that immigrants with former international student status can also lead to better economic outcomes. Immigrants with previous Canadian education and work experience earn approximately C$12,000 more per year than skilled workers without work or educational experience in Canada. For international students, there are a number of important factors behind the decision to remain in Canada. In a recent Canadian Bureau of International Education (CBIE) survey of international students in Canada, half of surveyed university students and three-quarters of college students chose Canada as a study destination because of post-graduate work opportunities, and 51 percent of university students and 57 percent of college students planned to pursue permanent residency. If you are interested in furthering your studies in Canada by becoming a foreign graduate from a Canadian post-secondary institution and gaining at least one year of full-time (or equivalent) skilled work experience in Canada under the proper work or study authorisation, you are on the right path toward becoming a Canadian.

Study: Canadian skilled migrants highest earners

A new study on Canadian immigration policy has found that immigrants who come to Canada as independent skilled migrants had "consistently and substantially" the highest earnings of four categories of immigrants. 

The researchers concluded that Canada should continue to focus on skilled migration. The researchers also hope that their study will influence future Canadian immigration policy.

The Queen's University study, Immigrant Earnings Differences Across Admission Categories and Landing Cohorts in Canada examined the first ten years after immigrants landed in three different time periods: 1982, 1988, and 1994.

The four categories include independent primary skilled migrant applicants, accompanying economic immigrants, family class immigrants, and refugees.

"The ten-year average of median earnings levels of skill-assessed economic immigrants exceeded the average median earnings levels for all immigrants by 30-37 percent across the [three periods studied] for men and by 39-56 percent for women," the study noted.

Family class immigrants and refugees had the lowest earnings out of the four categories.

"Refugees, both male and female, also experienced declines in their real earnings levels across the three successive [study periods]", the study said.

However, refugees had the highest earnings growth rates for both male and female immigrants during the first decade after coming to Canada.

Independent skilled migrants despite having the highest overall salary rates had the lowest growth rate over the first decade after coming to Canada.

The study also found that the economic downturns had a negative effect on immigrant earning levels and growth rates and that this effect was more pronounced for male immigrants than for female immigrants.

Immigrants who landed in Canada during the 1988 study period generally had the lowest median earnings growth rate for the three study periods due to the economic downturn in the early 1990s. The highest growth rate was in the 1994 study period, which experienced no economic downturn during the ten years.

The study noted that "since skill-assessed independent economic immigrants had substantially higher earnings levels throughout their first ten post-landing years, Canada should continue to place heavy weight on skill-assessed immigrants and not reduce the proportion of new immigrants admitted in the skilled worker category."