Immigrant job matches for various professionals, including teachers, have been assessed in a report released by Canada Statistics.
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25 February 2010
New Canadian immigration study on skilled migrants and jobs
Most foreign-educated professionals such as doctors, engineers and lawyers aren’t working in the career they trained for after arriving in Canada, a study released this week by Canada Statistics revealed.
The new federal-provincial program to process and recognise foreign credentials before professional immigrants arrive in Canada is hoped to address this issue as well as help place key occupations in the country’s labour market sooner.
The study into Canadian immigration trends found that only 24 per cent of immigrants educated outside Canada in a regulated occupation, defined by those that are governed by provincial governing or professional association, worked in their professions after emigrating to Canada.
The highest match rate were among Canadian immigrants who work in the health care sector, with job match rates for doctors and nurses trained outside of Canada at 56 per cent.
Immigrant job matches dropped to 24 per cent for teachers and 19 per cent for engineers, with lawyers the lowest of all at 12 per cent.
To address this shortfall, Canadian Immigration are implementing of a new system to fast-track the recognition of foreign credentials, and eliminate the barriers to employment and under-employment faced by many new arrivals in Canada.
The first group of occupations, which includes accountants, medical lab techs, occupational therapists and pharmacists, will get access to the program by the end of the year with the remainder of the professions – such as doctors, engineering technicians, nurses and teachers – will get access by the end of 2012.
By the end of 2012 a total of 15 occupations will be evaluated under the system.
The Canadian Visa Bureau is an independent consulting company specialising in helping people lodge their Canadian Visa with the Canadian Embassy London.
