Is Canada wasting immigrants’ skills?

WINNIPEG, Canada – There is this joke related to us that the best place to have a heart attack here is in a taxicab. Why? Simply because the driver is most likely an immigrant doctor.

The joke came to mind in the course of a briefing our group of Asean journalists got from a non-government organization (NGO) working on issues related to the assimilation of immigrants to Canadian society. Rich Janzen, a social scientist who worked on a research project on immigrant assimilation for the Center for Research and Education in Human Services in the Waterloo technology triangle, told us "a shortage of local family doctors is often cited as a barrier when attracting business to the area."

Janzen cited a comment published in a local newspaper that dramatized the urgency of helping foreign trained doctors practice their profession in Canada. Aside from family doctors, the newspaper article reported, specialists are also in demand, as evidenced in the six-month wait for an appointment with an ear, nose and throat physician and an additional two-month delay if surgery is required.

The problems being faced by foreign trained physicians in getting a license to practice in Canada are also shared by other professions including nurses, engineers and pharmacists. Janzen pointed out that neither the immigrants nor the NGOs supporting them are seeking exemptions from standards or shortcuts into the system. They are only calling for a coherent, equitable, effective and accountable system that provides the opportunities for the foreign trained professionals to practice their skills in their new adopted country.

The irony is, on paper, there seems to be official unanimity that Canada must indeed make sure the skills of the immigrants are not wasted. All the political parties agree on this point. The problem however is two-fold: one, not enough resources from government and local business communities are being made available to fund programs designed to help the immigrants undergo a smoother career transition in Canada; and two, the existence of some amount of latent discrimination against new immigrants, specially those of color.

The Policy Roundtable Mobilizing Professions and Trades (PROMPT), an Ontario-based group of internationally educated professionals, pointed out "immigrants fall through the cracks of various governmental jurisdictions" or in other words, the lack of policy coherence among levels of government. It also cited as contributory to the problem what it calls negative attitudes of Canadian society that cascades into negative attitudes and practices of regulators. "These attitudes influence immigrant lives in many ways, from subtle acts to overt discrimination."

Janzen cited another recent study in Ontario on how immigrant professionals fare. "Less than one-quarter of internationally educated professionals who were employed were working in their exact field and 47 percent were doing something unrelated to their field." This, he said, is counterproductive in the economic sense. He quotes David Foot, an economist from the University of Toronto: "Canada tries to pick the best educated candidates to immigration, and making sure they can find work in the area of their passion can serve as the foundation for economic growth and national prosperity."

The Conference Board of Canada tends to agree. It recently reported that more than half a million Canadians would earn an additional $4.1 billion to $5.9 billion annually if the experience and credentials of Canadians (notably immigrants) were recognized in the workplace. The Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity also released a working paper entitled Missing Opportunities. It says Canada is missing the opportunity to increase productivity and prosperity in part because of "an inability to take full advantage of immigrants human capital."

It is strange that while everyone agrees on the right thing to do, doing the right thing is proving to be difficult. In the meantime, doctors must drive taxi cabs to survive even if no less than Claudette Chase, president of the Ontario College of Family Physicians commented "there is no logic in having foreign-trained doctors driving cabs when severe doctor shortages are afflicting communities across the province."

For Canada’s cities in the Technology Triangle, local leaders are taking steps to help improve the situation in their area. They are calling an Immigrant Skills Summit next month for the purpose. According to Janzen, the summit will call for an expansion of the country’s bridging program to cover more professions. Bridging programs help immigrants gain Canadian upgrading experience. So far, the only professions covered are engineering, pharmacy and optometry.

In the end, national self interest will likely force a more timely response to the problem. Everyone we have talked to, from politicians to academicians and businessmen agree that Canada needs immigrants. "We are increasingly dependent on immigrants for population growth and for skills to help strengthen the community and fuel the economy," Janzen observed. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business has expressed concern with the shortage of labor. Janzen cites official statistics and concluded, "a shortage of up to ONE million workers is expected in Canada within the next 20 years. Critical job shortages loom across the country, particularly in the health, education and construction fields. It is estimated that by 2011, Canada’s entire net labor force growth will come from immigration." In recent years, some 225,000 immigrants came to Canada each year. The current Prime Minister has publicly talked about a goal of one percent of the population or about 300,000 a year under a system that favors those with higher education and skills. I guess they just have to learn how to harness those skills better or risk losing them to other countries in what experts see as an emerging competition for that pool of skilled workers inclined to move more freely in an increasingly globalized world.

Cool Pinoys

When our group arrived in this snow covered city in the Canadian prairies, the strong presence of the Pinoy migrants was apparent. Driving to the city from the airport, I noticed signs in Tagalog to denote small businesses catering to Pinoys. There is a Pinoy restaurant named Aristocrat and I wouldn’t be surprised if Jollibee is not far behind. There was even a street sign that read Manilla. There was an extra "l" but I guess far as this city of less than million people is from our tropical paradise, it will have to do. The first company we visited was a company fabricating what they call ecological chambers or high tech precision refrigerators meant for the scientific community. I was not surprised to meet two Pinoys from Cebu working at the assembly plant as electricians.

I am told there are some 40,000 Pinoys here at Winnipeg. I was actually wondering, when I arrived in Vancouver on a Philippine Airlines flight, why there were so many balikbayan boxes marked with Winnipeg addresses. As it turns out, Pinoys were early immigrants to this city, attracted by liberal immigration rules and ready jobs in the garments sector. A Pinoy doctor who once attained a high office in the Canadian parliament is from this area. But I was disappointed that I did not meet a single Pinoy among the group of graduate students working at the TR Labs, a non profit company located at the science park of the University of Manitoba dedicated to giving students of engineering and other technical sciences real world experience. There were two Thais, an Indonesian and aVietnamese among that group of high fliers. There was also no recognizable Pinoy name among the Asian names posted in their honor roll of past interns. How come not one Pinoy out of the 40,000 here to be among the young technological elite? The Thais, the Indonesians and the Vietnamese are not as numerous as the Pinoys here, yet they are there among Winnipeg’s young technological elite.I am not however, diminishing the Pinoys here. Looking at Winnipeg as snow continues to blanket the city and feeling the bitter cold wind blow on your face, the sacrifices of the Pinoy immigrants must be world class. It is no fun trying to move around in a city where slipping and breaking a bone is a minute by minute risk under these adverse weather conditions. I am just worried that unless the next generations of Canadian Pinoys work as hard as the other Asians here to be among the best in the high technology field, they will not be able to maximize the promise of the good life that is now within their grasp by migrating to Canada. I only have one thing to say to our kababayans here: Mabuhay!

Number One

PhilStar reader Perla Manapol sent in this one.

The reason that the Philippines is No. 2 in the List of Most Corrupt Countries in Asia is that....RP bribed Indonesia to take over the top spot!

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]