Cost of under-utilizing of immigrant skills
A recent national study by University of Toronto Professor Jeffrey Reitz estimated the lost earnings associated with under-utilizing immigrant skills to be in excess of $10 billion per year.
"Immigrant Skill Utilization in the Canadian Labour Market: Implications of Human Capital Research" Journal of International Migration and Integration 2(3), 2001.
There are many direct and indirect costs associated with the underutilization of immigrant skills. When foreign-trained professionals are unable to access the occupations for which they have been trained, they typically end up with lower paying jobs and employment that is less stable. Among Ottawa's full-time university educated workforce, for example, the weekly wages of recent immigrants are significantly lower than Canadian-born residents. This not only affects the economic well-being of immigrants and their families, but the larger community as well through reduced consumer spending and greater social and community service requirements. Moreover, the local economy loses out on the contribution of skilled immigrants in key areas of labour market need.
A World of Skills
Within the city of Ottawa, a coalition of local agencies serving immigrants (LASI) attempts to match the job requirements of local employers with the skills and talents of new Canadians. As part of its efforts, LASI administers the World Skills Employment Program for New Canadians, which identifies, prepares and presents immigrant job candidates to prospective employers. To assist in this work, World Skills maintains a database of clients, consisting of unemployed and underemployed immigrants searching for work that matches their skills, training and education. Analysis of this database provides further illustration of the underutilization of local immigrant talent.