Canadian Immigration
Policy for the 21st Century
Charles M. Beach, Alan G. Green and Jeffrey G.
Reitz (eds.),
2003 (Paper ISBN: 0-88911-954-6
$34.95) (Cloth ISBN: 0-88911-952-X $70.00)
Jump to
| Contents | |
| Introduction | |
| Preface | . . . | ix |
| Introduction Charles M. Beach, Alan G. Green and Jeffrey G. Reitz |
|
|
| Section I: International Context and Immigration Policy Goals | ||
| Introductory Remark Alfred MacLeod |
|
|
| The Global Context of Immigration Janice Gross Stein |
. . . |
|
| What is the Role of Immigration in Canada's Future? Alan G. Green |
. . . |
33 |
| Section II: Role of Immigration in Meeting Demographic, Occupational and Capital Market Needs | ||
| Effec of Immigration on Demographic Structure Roderic Beaujot |
. . . |
49 |
| Occupational Mobility of Immigrant Men: Evidence from
Longitudinal Data for Australia, Canada and the United States Marc Frenette, Vincent Hildebrand, James Ted McDonald and Christopher Worswick |
. . . |
93 |
| Immigration and Capital Accumulation in Canada: A Long-Run
Perspective Stuart J. Wilson |
. . . |
125 |
| Summary of Discussion |
. . . |
159 |
| Section III: Decentralization of Immigration Policy in Canada | ||
| Location Choice of New Immigrants to Canada: The Role of
Ethnic Networks James Ted McDonald |
. . . | 163 |
| The Manitoba Experience Gerald L. Clément |
. . . | 197 |
| Immigration Policy in Canada: A Quebec Perspective Gilles Grenier |
. . . | 201 |
| Comments Samuel Laryea |
. . . | 209 |
| Summary of Discussion | . . . | 213 |
| Section IV: International Labour Mobility and Policy Responses | ||
| Canadian Immigration Policy in Comparative Perspective John McHale |
. . . |
217 |
| The Potential Impacts of Immigration on Productivity in
Canada Alice Nakamura, Masao Nakamura and W. Erwin Diewert |
. . . |
255 |
| Summary of Discussion | . . . | 293 |
| Canadian Emigration to the United States David Card |
. . . | 295 |
| Section V: Canadian Immigration Data Sources | ||
| The IMDB: A User's Overview of the Immigration Database Michael G. Abbott |
. . . |
315 |
| Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada Martha Justus and Jessie-Lynn MacDonald |
. . . |
323 |
| New Household Surveys on Immigration Doug Norris |
. . . | 327 |
| Section VI: Labour Market Immigrant Integration Issues | ||
| The Falling Earnings of New Immigrant Men in Canada's
Large Cities Bert Waslander |
. . . |
335 |
| Effects of Business Cycles on the Labour Market
Participation and Employment Rate Assimilation of Immigrants Abdurrahman Aydemir |
. . . |
373 |
| Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Earnings by Postsecondary
Field of Study Stephan McBride and Arthur Sweetman |
. . . |
413 |
| Comments Louis Grignon |
. . . | 463 |
| Section VII: Social Inclusion and Immigrant Integration | ||
| Occupational Dimensions of Immigrant Credential
Assessment: Trends in Professional, Managerial and Other Occupations,
1970-1996 Jeffrey G. Reitz |
. . . | 469 |
| Public Attitudes Towards Immigrants and Immigration:
Determinants and Policy Implications Victoria M. Esses, Gordon Hodson and John F. Dovidio |
. . . | 507 |
| Visible-Minority Neighbourhood Enclaves and Labour Market
Outcomes of Immigrants Feng Hou and Garnett Picot |
. . . | 537 |
| Mental Health of Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Children in
Canada: Results of the National Longitudinal Study of Children and
Youth Violet Kaspar |
. . . | 573 |
| Comments Eric Fong |
. . . | 603 |
| Section VIII: Wrap-Up Panel on Broad Labour Market Issues and Future Directions for Canadian Immigration Policy | ||
| Panel Comments Naomi Alboim |
. . . | 609 |
| Panel Comments Barry Chiswick |
. . . | 615 |
| Panel Comments Don DeVoretz |
. . . | 619 |
| Panel Comments W. Craig Riddell |
. . . | 621 |
| Panel Comments Yvan Turcotte |
. . . | 633 |
| Summary of Discussion | . . . | 637 |
| Contributors |
| Return to Top |
INTRODUCTION
Context of Immigration
This volume is based on a two-day John Deutsch Institute conference
on
"Canadian Immigration Policy for the 21st Century" organized by Charles
Beach, Alan Green and Elizabeth Ruddick. It was held at Queen's
University
on October 18-19, 2002.
This is the second conference on immigration undertaken by the
John Deutsch Institute. The first, also held at Queen's, was in 1988. It
was a one-day meeting which was published as a "Policy Forum" under the
title The Role of Immigration in Canada's Future (October 1988).
The context and environment within which the present conference
and the earlier one occurred are very different. The 1988 meeting was
set
at the time of a rising tide of immigration which had gotten underway in
the early 1980s following a decade of low annual levels of inflow. The
latter was associated with the poor state of the Canadian economy; that
is, severe inflation, high unemployment and slow productivity growth,
which, like most of the rest of the world, were linked to changes in
energy prices in the post-Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) world. By 1984, annual immigration levels for this country had
declined to approximately 83,000 immigrants - the lowest levels since
the
early 1960s, also a period of slow growth and high unemployment. In both
cases, the government adjusted the total inflow to what it perceived as
the "absorptive capacity" of the economy (i.e., any higher levels might
well adversely affect the employment opportunities and nominal wages of
the Canadian population).
The current conference is set in a very different world. The past
decade has witnessed a sharp increase in the levels of immigration. At
present, the annual inflow is over 200,000 a year. In fact, between 1981
and 2001, the cumulative inflow has amounted to about 3.6 million new
immigrants. At the same time, the rate of natural increase in Canada's
population has fallen to historically low levels. As a result of low
fertility and high gross immigration rates, immigration now accounts for
60% of total population growth. Within ten years this could rise to
100%.
Immigration has become the central dynamic in both population and labour
force growth in Canada.
At the same time, federal and provincial governments have been
downsizing their programs (other than health), and the approach of
governments has shifted away from direct support programs and towards
creating incentives for individual initiative.
Between this and the last conference the government has set an
explicit annual targeted inflow of 1% of the population (approximately
300,000 immigrants a year). The adoption of this fixed target policy
signalled a shift towards a longer-run view of how admission numbers
should be managed. At the same time the selection process has become
more
focused on attracting young skilled workers to this country. The impacts
that these changes have had on the Canadian economy are in the early
stages of investigation. Some of this new work is included in this
volume.
The external environment has also changed. The post-September 11,
2001 (9/11) world is one concerned with border security and more careful
monitoring of inflow of personnel. There is an ongoing shift of
immigrants
from traditional source countries such as the United Kingdom, the United
States, and western Europe towards arrivals from Asia, Latin America,
and
Africa. And there is increasing international competition for skilled
labour for both permanent and short-term employment.
Another major difference between this and the last conference is
the way the government relates the level of inflow to short-run economic
conditions in Canada. As mentioned above, it had been the practice of
the
government since the early years of the last century to adjust the
inflow
to short-run economic conditions - the famous absorptive capacity model.
This approach was abandoned in the late 1980s. Since then, the
government
has set levels independently of short-run economic conditions,
essentially
ignoring the level of unemployment or the growth rate in setting total
levels. This became particularly important in the early 1990s when the
country faced high unemployment rates and slow growth, but continued to
admit immigrants in the range of 200,000 or more a year. This has
created
a new set of problems of immigrant adjustment, integration, and fiscal
stresses, some of which are addressed in this volume.
Despite the very different context within which these two
conferences were set, the range of problems addressed are remarkably
similar. The current conference, as in the first, was concerned with the
aging of the population, the shortage of skilled workers and the
composition of the inflow between economic immigrants and family
relatives, plus the ongoing role Canada should play in relieving the
plight of refugees. The new topics include questions about the annual
levels of immigration; that is, is 1% of the population the optimal
level
of inflow? Should we be concerned whether over 80% of all arrivals head
for just three cities - Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver? Should we be
concerned about the declining diversity in the composition of arrivals?
Finally, how has post-9/11, with all its security implications, affected
who should and who should not be admitted?
Major Issues Facing Immigration Policy
Several major issues face immigration policy in Canada at the
beginning
of
the twenty-first century. Clearly, they are informed by the environments
inside and outside the country, and they are very much interrelated.
First, Canada needs to review the goals and objectives of current
immigration policy. As indicated, the environment of immigration to
Canada
has changed over the last 20 years. Large numbers of immigrants are
settling predominantly in the three largest cities in Canada, with about
half of the total arrivals living in and around Toronto. The speed and
success of labour market integration of more recent immigrants have
slipped compared to that of earlier arrival cohorts and compared to
immigrants in the United States. Poverty rates among immigrant
households
within five years of arrival have increased dramatically since 1980 and
are related to immigrant origins. Critiques of Canadian immigration
policy
(e.g., Daniel Stoffman's Who Gets In: What's Wrong with Canada's
Immigration Program - and How to Fix It, 2002) have received
high-profile
coverage in the media. A lot is expected of immigration to meet several
alternative goals - demographic, economic, social, humanitarian, and
security. Indeed, as Alan Green's paper argues, perhaps too much is
expected and immigration cannot be viewed as a silver bullet to satisfy
all these objectives. It is thus worth having a public debate on the
relative priorities we wish to set among these objectives of immigration
policy, for these priorities will inform how we target and structure
Canadian immigration policy. For example, a shift in emphasis from
economic to social objectives for immigration will imply the need for
closer cooperation between different levels of government with
responsibility for community, education, housing, and social support
systems.
Second, immigration policy has to address the issues of setting
overall numerical targets and the selection criteria for admitting
immigrants. One of the earliest classic studies of immigration in Canada
was Mabel Timlin's book entitled Does Canada Need More People?
(1951) and
the debate is still ongoing on what is the appropriate total level of
annual immigration and what should it depend upon. A more recent study
by
the Economic Council of Canada, Economic and Social Impacts of
Immigration
(1991), proposed a long-run target rate of 1% of population (or about
300,000 per year in current figures). How should such long-run targets
be
formulated and what consultation process should be involved? Also, for a
given long-run target, should allowance be made for deviations from
targets based on, say, short-run economic conditions and absorptive
capacity - at either national or regional levels?
Immigrants arrive under different classes representing different
program objectives. The three broad classes are: Family Class immigrants
who enter on the basis of family relationships; Independent Class
immigrants selected on the basis of a point system that reflects
occupational skills, experience and likely adaptability to Canadian
society; and Convention Refugee Class immigrants who are admitted on the
basis of Canadian laws governing refugee admissions and likely
adaptability to the Canadian environment. These are generally called
family (reunification) class, economic class, and refugee class
immigrants. Major concerns of immigration policy, then, are the
relative
numbers of immigrants to be admitted under these different classes, and
the rules and procedures governing each of these admission classes.
These
do not exist in a vacuum, but are informed by overall goals and
priorities, by actual economic success and rate of integration to
Canadian
society of the different immigrant groups, and by political and regional
concerns. Within the point system, there has been considerable interest
in
the questions of appropriate selection criteria and the relative weights
to attach to the specific criteria for economic immigrants such as
education, age, occupational skills, knowledge of languages such as
English or French, and likelihood of business success. What roles should
be given to provinces in reaching such decisions? What rules and
procedures should be applied to the selection of temporary immigrants,
and
who should have input into these decisions? Procedures should also
ensure
the integrity and security of Canadian borders in a post-9/11
environment.
The success of the immigration program owes much to effective
management,
particularly of selection criteria. A number of the conference papers
and
discussions refer to these policy issues.
A third set of issues for immigration policy involves analyzing
the adjustment process of recent immigrants to Canada and promoting the
effective integration of permanent immigrants into the Canadian labour
market and society. Good policy needs to be informed by up-to-date
evidence and research. The period since the late 1980s has, in fact,
seen
a remarkable explosion and maturation of research on immigration issues
in
both Canada and the United States - see, for example, the major sets of
studies in Smith and Edmonston (1997) and Borjas (2000) for the United
States and the recent set of overviews for Canada in Canadian
Issues
(April 2003). The research is fostered by valuable new datasets and by
the
setting up of four dedicated research centres and programs focused on
immigration related matters (i.e., the Metropolis project). It has also
expanded to look at impacts of immigration and recent immigrant
experience
well beyond the labour market. Journal articles on all aspects of the
immigration process, rare before 1980, are now part of the academic
landscape. Many of the papers at this conference attest to this
broadening
range of inquiry. Such research helps to identify problems in the
immigrant adjustment process, and to provide better understanding of the
likely consequences of policy alternatives and of current rules and
procedures.
The main involvement of federal policymakers in promoting the
effective integration of permanent immigrants in Canada has largely been
with settlement programs. These are directed mainly at smoothing the
initial settlement process, and include counselling and language
instruction. The objective has been to reduce the costs of settlement
and
help overcome early hurdles in the settlement process, and hence foster
integration into the economy and society. A number of papers at the
conference addressed various aspects of the immigrant adjustment process
under the general headings of labour market adjustment and social
integration, but clearly the two are linked. A number of significant
issues and trends regarding the successful integration of immigrants go
well beyond the initial settlement process. Much attention was devoted
at
the conference to the declining labour market performance of immigrants;
the social welfare costs of immigration; difficulties in recognition of
foreign educational and professional credentials; social exclusion or
discrimination against immigrants or visible minorities in various
sectors
such as employment, education, housing and public services; and regional
impacts and inter-governmental aspects of the uneven dispersion of
immigrants across the country. Probably the most important of these
issues
in the short to intermediate term is the declining labour market
performance of immigrants. Dealing with the above sets of issues will
involve federal departments well beyond Citizenship and Immigration
Canada
as well as joint arrangements with provincial and even municipal levels
of
government.
Overview of the Studies in this Volume
Session one at the conference set out the above concerns in a broader
context. In "The Global Context of Immigration", for example, Janice
Stein
outlines three factors that are central to shaping global population
movement. First, are the economic and social consequences of a widening
gap in ages between developed and less-developed countries - the
"demographic divide". Second, is the impact that access to the newest
technology will have on the growth in income inequality both within and
between countries. Finally, as the demographic divide interacts with
widening income inequality, ever greater pressure will be placed on
countries like Canada to take in more immigrants. How we react to these
pressures either by welcoming and including these new immigrants in the
wider society or by marginalizing them will say much about how this
country will evolve in the decades ahead. In the same section, Alfred
MacLeod stresses the importance of placing immigration in a ten-year
term
planning time frame. The challenges facing policymakers in setting
longer
run immigration policy include such areas as globalization and
competitiveness, security issues in light of 9/11, diversity versus a
limited number of source countries, levels, and the role of immigration
in
solving the aging population problem. What emerges from this longer term
view of formulating immigration policy is not only the need to involve
more areas of the government in the decision-making process but also a
need to expand the research agenda in this important area of public
policy. Finally, Alan Green in "What is the Role of Immigration in
Canada's Future?" takes a sceptical view on whether immigration alone is
capable of solving the aging problem, future skill shortages and
regional
income inequality. For example, immigration adds to the growth of the
labour force and so offsets rising dependency rates, but within
politically tolerable limits it cannot change the basic age structure of
the population. Its role in solving skill shortages is also limited. A
better solution might be to expand the domestic education levels.
Finally,
we have little evidence that people can be moved to regions that are at
odds with their personal preferences. Immigration on its own is simply
no
"silver bullet" in resolving the countries diverse social and economic
problems.
In section two, Roderic Beaujot tackles the question of the impact
of immigration on Canadian demographics in "Effect of Immigration on
Demographic Structure". This study sets out in some detail the various
characteristics of past and current immigration and shows how
dramatically
its role has changed over the decades. For example, Beaujot shows that
periods of high immigration are associated with periods of high
emigration. In fact, over the long run, immigration has just offset
emigration, leaving little room for net immigration to contribute to
population change. Statistically, results show that the growth of the
labour force did not slow until after the mid-1980s unlike total
population growth that began to slow down much earlier. In addition,
immigrants are more concentrated in large cities than are their native
counterparts (i.e., 60% of the foreign-born live in Montreal, Toronto,
and
Vancouver compared to only 27% of the native-born population). In terms
of
socio-cultural composition of population resulting from immigration,
Beaujot argues that "Canada is becoming a multi-ethnic society where
'pluralism' rather than 'visible' minorities is the more appropriate
term".
In "Occupational Mobility of Immigrant Men: Evidence from
Longitudinal Data for Australia, Canada and the United States", Marc
Frenette, Vincent Hildebrand, James McDonald and Chris Worswick analyze
the occupational outcomes for three immigrant-receiving countries during
the 1980s and 1990s. One of the goals of the paper is to examine whether
the immigrants to these market-oriented economies faced similar
adjustment
experiences. Their cross-section results show that, with some
exceptions,
the occupational distributions for native- and foreign-born workers are
generally similar. Differences that existed in the early years of
settlement tended to disappear over time. The authors also use a
first-order Markov transition model to examine the probability of
workers
moving between occupations over time for Australia and the United
States.
In general, the results suggest that, for recent immigrant arrivals, the
probability of occupational switching was greater than it was for
comparable native American workers and this difference decreased with
years since migration. In the Australian case, the transition
probabilities were about the same for native- and foreign-born workers
right from the start.
In "Immigration and Capital Accumulation in Canada: A Long-Run
Perspective", Stuart Wilson examines the effect of changing immigration
on
the rate of investment in Canada over the twentieth century. The author
finds that a positive relationship exists between immigration and per
capita fixed investment in the early years of that century. However,
this
relationship is reversed during the last third of the century. He
ascribes this reversal to a relative decline in the human capital level
of
recent immigrants. The decline in human capital content then lowers the
productivity of labour and so slows the growth in per capita investment.
He supports this result through the application of time series analysis.
This research confirms other work showing that it takes a much longer
period of time for newly arrived immigrants to converge on the incomes
of
similarly positioned domestic workers than it did for earlier immigrant
arrivals. The author contends that this decline in the productivity of
recent immigrants may be due to a switch in immigration policy from an
economic focus to one concerned more with humanitarian factors (i.e.,
family reunion, refugee movements, etc.). His solution to this problem
is
to invest more resources in the education and training of recent
immigrants.
In the last few years provincial governments, following the
earlier lead of Quebec, have become much more active in the formulation
of
immigration policy and its effect on their particular region. Section
three reviews some of these experiences. For example, Gerald Clément
sets
out the initiatives that Manitoba has undertaken to attract immigrants
to
this province during the last few years. Gilles Grenier describes the
unique features of immigration to Quebec. In particular, he points out
the
value of protecting linguistic duality. The evidence he provides
suggests
that the percentage of the immigrant population who speak French at home
has increased over time. In terms of the influence of language and
culture
on migration decisions, the paper by James McDonald, "Location Choice of
New Immigrants to Canada: The Role of Ethnic Networks", finds that these
factors exert a powerful influence on the initial location of new
immigrants. Ethnic networks provide a powerful incentive to new
immigrants
on where they might first locate. Information supplied by these prior
migrants is invaluable as the more recent arrivals put down roots in
their
new home. These findings raise interesting questions about how
successful
the proposed government program to spread immigrants more evenly across
regions will work.
Section four examined international labour mobility and policy
responses. The first paper by John McHale considers "Canadian
Immigration
Policy in Comparative Perspective". He begins with an analytical
assessment of a skill-focused immigration policy within a model of
immigration surplus. He examines the concept of skill shortage and
argues
against using occupational shortages as a basis for a permanent
immigration policy. He develops a framework for considering a
skill-based
optimal immigration policy, and evaluates recent immigration policy
reforms both in Canada and elsewhere in terms of the design principles
emerging from his model and finds that Canada's recently reformed system
compares quite well. However, he notes that Canada's temporary
immigration
policy is rather cumbersome and would benefit from learning what other
countries are doing in attracting skilled temporary workers. Looking at
recent estimates of the number of Canadian-born workers in the United
States, he finds a marked increase in the "brain drain" to the United
States in contrast to the findings of a number of other studies.
Alice and Masao Nakamura and Erwin Diewert examine how overall
labour productivity in the economy is affected by immigrants arriving
with
different skill levels and different market treatment of these skill
levels in "The Potential Impacts of Immigration on Productivity in
Canada". This is motivated by concerns about immigrants from origins
other
than the United States and United Kingdom experiencing lower average
earnings than native-born workers in Canada. The authors develop an
index
number framework for considering how different sorts of immigrant
inflows
could be expected to affect traditional and new concepts of productivity
growth.
Some expect Canadian immigration policy to offset the effects of a
"brain drain" - the emigration of highly-skilled Canadians to other
countries - but specific patterns of emigration have been difficult to
pinpoint. David Card looks at "Canadian Emigration to the United States"
by examining Canadian-born workers living in the United States from the
US
censuses over the period 1980 to 2000. Canadians living in the US have
long been better educated than those remaining back in Canada. However,
this pattern of selective emigration may have intensified in recent
years
due to two major factors: "the decline in Canadian average incomes
relative to those in the United States, reflected in the fall of the
Canadian dollar; and the sharp rise in relative wages of highly educated
young workers in the United States".
Session five of the conference looked at Canadian data sources
available for immigration research in Canada. Michael Abbott, in "The
IMDB: A User's Overview of the Immigration Database", provides summary
information on Statistics Canada's and Citizenship and Immigration
Canada's longitudinal administrative database on landed immigrants in
Canada going back to 1980. He discusses the main strengths and
limitations
of the IMDB from the perspective of an empirical researcher on
immigration
issues. The IMDB is uniquely suitable for empirically evaluating the
effects of various worker and landing characteristics on immigrants'
post-landing outcomes. Martha Justus and Jessie-Lynn MacDonald talk
about
the new "Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada" (LSIC) currently
being set up by Statistics Canada. Its objective is to examine how new
immigrants adjust to life in Canada over time and what factors help or
hinder the integration process. Here, in contrast to the IMDB, workers'
human capital characteristics can change over time. The first wave of
interviews occurred April 2001 to March 2002 and focused on immigrants
who
came to Canada between October 2000 and September 2001. Douglas Norris
of
Statistics Canada provides information on "New Household Surveys on
Immigration" available to researchers in Canada. The 2001 census, though
not a new survey, does contain several relevant innovations for
immigration researchers. It will allow one to distinguish between
permanent and non-permanent residents and to identify second-generation
Canadians and what has been happening to them. He also discusses three
new
or recent household surveys that provide useful information on
immigrants
in Canada. The Ethnic Diversity Survey looks at ethnic origin and
ancestry. The Canadian Community Health Survey focuses on health
indicators and health-related trends. Both surveys contain large samples
of immigrants. Finally, the ongoing Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics
(SLID) provides longitudinal information over a six-year panel on
details
of labour, employment, and income for both immigrant and non-immigrant
households.
Session six of the conference looked at the changing immigrant
experience in the labour market and labour market integration issues.
Bert
Waslander examines "The Falling Earnings of New Immigrant Men in
Canada's
Large Cities". Focusing on the eight largest metropolitan areas in
Canada
between 1980 and 1995, he finds that part of the earnings decline is due
to changes in unemployment and an increased sensitivity of earnings to
the
unemployment rate, to the returns to educational attainment and foreign
work experience of new immigrants being low and indeed declining, and to
the changing origin mix of new immigrants over that period.
Abdurrahman Aydemir looks at the "Effects of Business Cycles on
the Labour Market Participation and Employment Rate Assimilation of
Immigrants". His study identifies the separate effects of macroeconomic
conditions at the time of entry into the Canadian labour market and at
the
time of the survey on labour market outcomes of immigrants, while also
allowing for cohort effects using annual SCF cross-sections over the
period 1979 to 1997. He finds that estimated cohort effects and labour
market assimilation profiles are sensitive to the inclusion of controls
for macroeconomic conditions, and "the deterioration in assimilation of
recent immigrants is partly due to the adverse economic conditions they
face when they enter the labour market and in subsequent years".
Finally, Stephan McBride and Arthur Sweetman look at "Immigrant
and Non-Immigrant Earnings by Postsecondary Field of Study". Using the
20%
file from Canadian censuses for 1986-96, the authors explore differences
in earnings by 50 fields of study. They find large differences in the
distribution of workers across fields of study between immigrants and
non-immigrants. In general, the differences between high- and
low-earning
fields are not as large for immigrants as for Canadian-born workers. But
field of study differences do not explain much of the earnings
differences
observed between immigrant and native-born workers in Canada.
Section seven on social inclusion examined social processes of
inclusion and exclusion affecting the integration of immigrants and
racial
minorities. In recent decades, immigration has dramatically increased
racial diversity of the Canadian population. Although there is evidence
that many Canadians welcome racial diversity, there also is evidence
that
new immigrants and racial minorities experience significant
disadvantages
including racial barriers to economic mobility and social inclusion. The
four papers in this section reflect some of the most important themes of
social science research on this subject in Canada.
Prevailing inter-group attitudes are a critical aspect of race
relations. Although there is positive evidence of general support for
multiculturalism, and for the fairly expansionist immigration policies
of
recent years, minority opposition to immigration is still substantial,
however, and reflects a degree of discomfort towards immigrants that
could
be quite significant. The psychological basis of attitudes towards
immigrants and racial minorities is explored from both theoretical and
policy perspectives in the paper by Esses, Hodson and Dovidio on "Public
Attitudes Towards Immigrants and Immigration: Determinants and Policy
Implications". The analysis focuses on beliefs about immigrants, such as
whether immigrants compete with Canadians for jobs, whether they
threaten
"Canadian culture", and so on. Individual beliefs on these matters are
linked to attitudes towards immigrants and immigration generally. Esses
et
al. show that both beliefs and attitudes towards immigration can be
resistant to change because they are linked to basic personality
characteristics. For persons with these characteristics, negative
beliefs
about immigrants are resistant to change simply by presenting
information
that challenges those beliefs.
The relation between attitudes and behaviour is variable, of
course, and it is important to examine the status of immigrants and race
relations in various institutional contexts. Within labour markets, the
transferability of immigrant skills and their recognition by Canadian
employers is critical. This is the primary basis for the emphasis in
Canadian immigration policy on the selection of highly-skilled
immigrants.
In recent years, the under-representation of immigrants in emerging
occupations of the "knowledge economy" has become a critical issue.
Reitz
explores these processes on an occupation-specific basis in
"Occupational
Dimensions of Immigrant Credential Assessment: Trends in Professional,
Managerial and Other Occupations, 1970-1996". His findings confirm that
university qualifications are significantly discounted in competition
for
the best-paid professional jobs. However, he also finds that the extent
of discounting varies among occupations. Skill discounting is greater in
managerial occupations than in professional occupations, and it is still
greater outside knowledge occupations altogether. It appears that
institutional procedures to evaluate education-based job qualifications
are actually more rigorous in professionalized occupations, and that
immigrants face their most significant challenges of inclusion in less
professionalized sectors of the workforce where in fact educational
levels
have been rising most rapidly. This suggests that, while programs to
address skill recognition must include the licensed professions, to be
successful the programs must extend well beyond the professional domain.
In the broader community of any multicultural society, a key
question is the social impact of ethnic community differentiation. If
immigrant groups create communities that provide a degree of separation
from the "mainstream" society, does this in any way hamper their
successful integration within that society? The paper by Hou and Picot
on
"Visible-Minority Neighbourhood Enclaves and Labour Market Outcomes of
Immigrants" takes a broad approach and examines how residence in a
racial
minority "enclave" within one of Canada's immigrant-intensive cities
affects occupational success. They find that in most cases the
relationship is small or statistically insignificant. But they also find
certain instances, particularly within the black community, where
negative
effects of minority context do appear to be consequential for group
members. This analysis points towards the need for new policy approaches
to community relations in a multiracial society.
From the standpoint of the long-term integration of immigrant
minorities, the situation of the second generation has particular
importance. Kaspar in "Mental Health of Immigrant and Non-Immigrant
Children in Canada: Results of the National Longitudinal Study of
Children
and Youth" examines the experiences of immigrant children using the
National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. The positive health
status of immigrants and their children - the well-known "healthy
immigrant" effect - is usually attributed to selection processes,
including self-selection. However, Kaspar shows that the advantage of
immigrant children may partly be the transitional nature of their
circumstances. When parents become established and have secure
employment,
the advantage is reduced or even disappears. These findings potentially
are of considerable significance in attempts to gauge the impact of
growing immigrant poverty on the children of immigrants in the future.
Finally, section eight was a wrap-up panel discussion on the major
immigration issues and concerns of several leading commentators. Naomi
Alboim begins by noting that much of the conference has focused on
skilled
workers, but we also need to consider what kind of institutional change
on
the part of employers, educational institutions, professional regulatory
bodies, and government policies and regulations may be required to make
better use of the arriving immigrants' human capital. She also discussed
the growing attention to the regionalization of immigration in Canada
and
the distinct role of cities in this process. Cities want a say in terms
of
immigration policy formation because of how the three largest cities in
the country are impacted by the large ongoing inflows of immigrants, and
they want compensation for the initial costs and support they are called
upon to bear on behalf of the new arrivals. She feels that the
immigration
decision process should be a bottoms-up process where cities should be
leading the initiative to attract and retain immigrants. This will
require
institutional change at the local level in promoting their communities
abroad and advertising their sectoral and occupational needs, and in
developing local bridging/settlement programs to help the new arrivals
to
re-enter the occupations for which these immigrants have been trained.
Barry Chiswick raises the question of analyzing what is the
optimal size of population or rate of change of population growth, and
why
do these matter? A relevant factor here is the need to rethink
dependency
ratios with people living healthy active lives well beyond age 65. He
also
draws attention to the growing phenomenon of footloose people and an
international labour market for high-skilled workers. The result is
wages
for high-skilled workers will become more equalized, contributing to
growing earnings inequality within many countries. Canada will need to
examine policies to retain such labour and prevent it from becoming a
way
station for skilled workers on their way to the United States. He also
notes that the attraction of low-skilled foreign workers into selected
occupations, for example, in home health care and agriculture, likely
contributes to keeping down already relatively low wages in these jobs
for
low-skilled domestic workers.
Donald DeVoretz also draws attention to the growing role of
nonpermanent immigrants and the role that Canada plays in attracting
skilled immigrants who, after a period of adjustment in Canada, then
move
on to the United States as their ultimate destination. He expresses
concern about how Canadian immigration policies and practices will be
affected by post-9/11 events in the US and growing pressures to
harmonize
immigration policies at the Canada-US border in order to protect trading
markets. Yvan Turcotte raises the question of whether foreign
credentials
are undervalued in the Canadian market because they are often viewed as
of
lower quality; if so, then one might consider adding quality of
education
to the point system selection grid. He also wondered whether more weight
in this grid should be given to demographic criteria not only for the
principal applicant, but also for the spouse and presence and age of
children. He remarks that maintaining an open immigration policy needs a
social consciousness in support of it, and this would benefit from a
more
open and frequent consultative process regarding the role of immigration
in Canada generally.
Craig Riddell reiterates Alan Green's concern that Canadian
society seems to be expecting too much of immigration as meeting a broad
set of economic objectives; if anything, it seems to be more of a
component of social rather than economic policy. He argues for improved
data to better inform research and policy in the area. He raises the
important analytical and policy question of what is the appropriate
counterfactual against which to compare the relative labour market
outcomes of immigrants - the native-born population as a whole or the
subgroup of recent labour market entrants among the native-born? In his
own research, he finds that, despite the views of many others, immigrant
credentials do appear to be valued in the Canadian labour market and
that
there is little evidence of a decreased valuation of immigrant
credentials
since 1980. Direct measures of literacy skills on the earnings of
immigrants and native-born also appear to have similar effects. He
concludes that the sources of the lower return to the measured human
capital of immigrants are more complex than the simple
lower-quality-of-foreign-education stories would imply.
References
Beach, C.M. and A.G. Green, eds. (1988), Policy Forum on the
Role
of Immigration in Canada's Future (Kingston: John Deutsch Institute,
Queen's University).
Borjas, G.J. (2000), Issues in the Economics of Immigration
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Canadian Issues / Thèmes Canadiens (2003), Special dedicated
issue
on "Immigration: Opportunities and Challenges" (April edition).
Economic Council of Canada (1991), Economic and Social Impacts of
Immigration (Ottawa: Supply and Services Canada).
Smith, J.P. and B. Edmonston, eds. (1997), The New Dimensions:
Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration
(Washington,
DC:
National Academy Press).
Stoffman, D. (2002), Who Gets In: What's Wrong with Canada's
Immigration Program - and How to Fix It (Toronto: Macfarlane, Walter
and Ross).
Timlin, M.F. (1951), Does Canada Need More People? (Toronto:
Oxford University Press).
©2002 John Deutsch Institute, Queen's University