39% of Canadians see immigration as positive, poll finds

POSTMEDIA NEWS AUGUST 5, 2011

Nearly half the respondents to a groundbreaking global poll believe immigration has had a negative impact on their countries, according to results released Thursday by Ipsos.

And while Canadians have a relatively upbeat attitude on immigration, only a minority of Canadians polled - 39 per cent - viewed its impact as positive.

Forty-five per cent of the 17,601 respondents to the 23-country survey believe "immigration has generally had a negative impact on their country." Only 21 per cent believe immigration has had a positive effect. The rest - 29 per cent - are on the fence.

Thirty-five per cent of Canadians viewed immigration's effects as negative, while 26 per cent were either neutral or did not know.

Countries with the strongest negative opinions were Belgium (72 per cent) followed by South Africa (70 per cent), Russia (69 per cent), Great Britain (64 per cent) and Turkey (57 per cent).

Education made a big difference in respondents' attitudes. Educated Canadians topped the list of people most likely to view immigration positively. Sixty per cent of Canadians with higher levels of education believed its impact on their country was positive, "followed by their highly-educated counterparts in Australia (51 per cent), Saudi Arabia (47 per cent), Brazil (43 per cent), India (43 per cent), Sweden (39 per cent) and the United States (32 per cent)."

The results come at a time when many people seem to believe immigration rates are rising. Some 80 per cent of those surveyed believe that immigration has increased in their respective countries in the past five years.

Ipsos senior vice-president John Wright said he wasn't surprised by the results, given the social end economic tur-moil that has embroiled many of the countries surveyed.

Italy, for example, has dealt with a flood of migrants fleeing strife in Tunisia. Millions of migrants have headed to South Africa from neighbouring African states.

Wright said the survey was a "quick snapshot to find out where the world is" and Ipsos is providing details to academic institutions for study.

Most countries surveyed had more than 1,000 respondents. In those countries, the margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Read more:http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Canadians+immigration+positive+poll+finds/5208948/story.html#ixzz1UCaIKztM

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• Poll shows 56 per cent of Canadians think immigrants burden social services (canada.com)

Unemployment rate in Saskatchewan unchanged, lowest in Canada

David Giles, Global Saskatoon: Friday, August 5, 2011

No change in unemployment rate in Saskatchewan, remains lowest in Canada.

Photo Credit: -, Global News

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• Over 12,000 jobs posted on Sask. government website in July
• Job outlook remains strong in Saskatoon
• Unemployment rate drops slightly in Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan’s unemployment rate remained steady in July as the province continues to lead Canada with the lowest unemployment rate in Canada.

New numbers released by Stats Canada on Friday has the unemployment rate in the province at 4.9 per cent for July 2011, unchanged from June and down 0.2 per cent from the same time last year. The number of unemployed people actually rose to 27,100, an increase of 300 from June.

Employment in the province also increased in July, with 1,600 more people working than in the previous month. Full-time employment increased by 4,500 while there were 2,900 less people working part-time.

Saskatoon’s unemployment rate dropped 0.1 per cent from the previous month to 5.4 per cent, the fourth lowest in the country for a major centre. Regina held steady at 5.2 per cent, the second lowest in Canada.

"Today's numbers show that Saskatchewan's economy remains strong and steady despite the economic uncertainty south of the border and in other parts of the world," Advanced Education, Employment and Immigration Minister Rob Norris said.

While the opposition NDP was happy to see an increase in jobs, NDP Critic for Education, Employment and Immigration Cam Broten was concerned about the number of unemployed people.

“Clearly, the overall picture released by Statistics Canada this morning is not entirely a pretty one,” Broten said. “With nearly 30,000 people looking for work and with significant job losses in key regions and sectors, there is certainly cause for concern in the latest statistics.”

However, Norris remains optimistic about the future, pointing to job opportunities all across the province and continued growth in the economy.

“Seven major economic forecasters place Saskatchewan's real GDP growth rate at 3.7 per cent in 2011, second highest in Canada."

The unemployment rate in Canada for July was 7.2 per cent.

© Copyright (c) Shaw Media Inc.

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Pay more, get less, or work longer - these are likely scenarios

As our workforce ages, younger income-earners are being asked to carry more of the tax burden and cost of services such as health care

BY DON CAYO, VANCOUVER SUN AUGUST 4, 2011

• STORY
• PHOTOS ( 1 )

Seniors tend to cost governments more money than they pay in taxes

Photograph by: WAYNE HIEBERT, Postmedia files

Seniors tend to cost governments more money than they pay in taxes; younger workers are more apt to pay in more than they get back in services.

As the balance of these two groups changes in Canada - a burgeoning cohort of retirees, and a barely budging number of income-earners - something's got to give. What are the options?

The best choice, though it's unlikely to be sufficient to cover all of the new demand for government services, would be to simply get more productivity out of those who still go to work.

On one hand, there should be scope for this because, compared to other countries, we haven't been improving our productivity very well. On the other hand, our track record is discouraging because - you guessed it - compared to other countries, we haven't been improving our productivity very well.

Also, because productivity gains are tied to investment, our efforts won't be helped by the shrinking of Canada's capital pool as a growing number of seniors stop saving and start drawing down capital to fund retirement.

Another strategy would be to add new workers through immigration.

We're already doing that, and it works - to a point.

An analysis by Schroder Investment Management notes that Canada has the highest immigration rates in the developed world.

"This is why Canada's population will continue to grow, albeit slowly, until 2050, while many other developed countries will shrink," it says.

"By the 2020s, all population growth is expected to come from immigration, and many sectors of the economy (transport, primary industry, construction) will be dependent on foreign workers. In light of this, it seems unlikely that immigration could be raised to high enough levels to completely offset the effect of domestic population aging."

There are other options, of course, but all look less palatable.

One is that governments could simply give Canadians fewer benefits and services. For seniors, this would almost certainly mean cuts to pensions and further erosion of health care, the two biggies that strain government coffers.

Schroder notes that this is, in effect, what Canada already does to keep the growth of its health care costs at a lower rate than most other developed countries.

Health care cost control "has been largely achieved by limiting capacity," the analysis says. "The number of doctors per 1,000 residents has barely risen; the number of nurses and hospital beds has fallen, and Canada has lagged other OECD countries in its stock of medical technology.

"Capacity control does not appear to have adversely affected health outcomes, with life expectancy and infant mortality continuing to improve and outperform the U.S. However, continued demand growth has necessitated health care rationing and the user experience has deteriorated: Waiting lists for procedures are long and it is often difficult to find a family doctor."

Hands up if you're an older person who wants to see us go farther down this road.

A second strategy would be to tax working people more steeply to pay the freight for the growing numbers who don't go to work any more. That's essentially what the federal government did a decade ago when it raised the mandatory contribution rate for the Canada Pension Plan to 9.9 per cent from six per cent of eligible earnings. Hands up if you're a younger worker who wants to see your deductions go higher still.

Finally, it would help - but only to a point - if baby boomers were to put off retirement for a few more years. Governments have recently made this possible by banning mandatory retirement at 65, and misbehaving markets have made it necessary for at least some of us to stay on the job for a few years longer than we once planned. But the next logical policy step would be to add a stick to the carrot by delaying eligibility for pensions and seniors' benefits.

This would likely irk both sides of the generation gap - boomers who are eager to retire, and younger workers who itch to be promoted into the jobs the old guys vacate.

dcayo@vancouversun.com Blog:

vancouversun.com/economy

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Read more:http://www.vancouversun.com/business/more+less+work+longer+these+likely+scenarios/5203732/story.html#ixzz1UACIxzoc

Age, language are key to better outcomes for immigrants

Image via Wikipedia

ARTHUR SWEETMAN

Special to Globe and Mail Update

Many immigration issues transcend economics, but Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s cross-country consultation is a remarkable opportunity for an overdue national discussion regarding the role of immigration in the Canadian economy.

Economists, government analysts and others have been documenting the ongoing decline in immigrant labour market outcomes for at least two decades. In 1980, the percentage of immigrants and the Canadian-born living below the low-income cut-off (sometimes called a poverty line) was almost identical at about 17 per cent. Since then, the rate for immigrants increased to more than 21 per cent (in 2005), while that for the Canadian-born decreased to 13 per cent.

Most of the difference appears to be driven by declining labour market outcomes for subsequent cohorts of new arrivals. Immigrants who landed in the late 1970s earned at entry roughly 15 per cent less than comparable Canadians. Since then, the earnings gap has increased significantly and is now in the range of 35 per cent to 40 per cent. The gap narrows as time spent in Canada increases, but it’s not clear that the average recent immigrant will catch up in a reasonable working lifetime.

While federal and provincial governments have taken steps to improve labour market outcomes, more is needed. Research shows there are many factors at play, but two stand out: language ability and age at arrival.

It’s well understood that English- or French-language skills are important for labour market (as well as social) integration for all immigrants, but they’re especially important for the skilled workers we seek to attract.

The Canadian “points” system currently sets the same language requirements for all immigrants. But there’s some evidence that language skills are especially important in facilitating the portability of preimmigration human capital for high-skilled immigrants. Unfortunately, some appear not to have the language skills necessary to fully employ their occupational/educational skills in the Canadian labour market. Putting increased emphasis on language ability at selection for the highly skilled seems to make sense if a “fast start” is desired. Simultaneously, providing settlement resources to allow more extensive language training would be a good investment.

Demographic issues also interact with economic ones. There have been suggestions that immigration’s economic class (as opposed to family or refugee class) be employed to address the dependency ratio associated with population aging. But the actual operation of the system does not appear to have paid any attention to this goal. While those in the skilled worker category are awarded points for “age,” these don’t align with demographic needs. (Strangely, neither do they align with the observed age profile associated with positive labour market outcomes. Rather, they are flat and at their maximum from age 21 to 49.)

As a result, the demographic peak for current immigrants coincides with the peak for the baby boom and, therefore, increases rather than alleviates problems associated with baby boomers’ impending retirement. While a sensible immigration system can only influence our nation’s age structure a little one way or the other, the immigration system could start to “fill in the Generation X valley” between the hills of the baby boom and baby boom echo.

Finally, the immigrant selection system needs better/more management tools and transparency. The “inventory” (backlog) of applications is untenable and requires action. While recent changes are going in the right direction, they appear to be insufficient. One million people are currently waiting to be processed, and more are added to the list every day.

Additional measures – such as increased preliminary screening and stronger proactive management of the application process for the economic class, including adjusting the points threshold to manage the queue – would be beneficial. Coming to admission decisions more quickly and improving economic outcomes for new immigrants will be better for prospective immigrants and for Canada. Increased transparency, including regular detailed reporting of processing times, might also assist in improving system operations.

Arthur Sweetman is a professor in the Department of Economics at McMaster University. He recently presented research findings at the Institute for Research on Public Policy’s conference on Canada’s long-term immigration policy.

Related articles

• Age, language are key to better outcomes for immigrants (theglobeandmail.com)
• Only more immigrants can save Canada's economy (fullcomment.nationalpost.com)

RBC tips immigrants to Canada starting a new business

 EDITED BY JOHN STOKES

If you are thinking of starting a business in Canada, it pays to know what resources are available. There are several special programs and services offered by the government, and financial institutions to help newcomers become successful business owners in Canada.

"Newcomers should look for start-up incentives, advisory services and step-by-step roadmaps," said Camon Mak, head multicultural markets.

Mak offers tips for getting started:

 Find a small business advisor at a bank who understands your needs as a newcomer. They can provide you with the appropriate advice to help your business succeed.

 Ask your advisor where to look for information on understanding local market opportunities.

 Talk to your advisor about getting connected to important community resources, such as an accountant, lawyer and government services.

Further tips are available online at www.rbcroyalbank.com/tips.

You can also visit www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/lifeevents/business, to find more information on how to start your own business in Canada.

Source: http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/news/business/2011/08/03/389.html