U.S. seeks immigration 'pointers' from Canada

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

U.S. officials are interested in the point system used to rate and admit highly skilled immigrants in Canada — and which has been so successful that immigrants are now better educated than Canadian-born workers, says a Kingston, Ont., researcher.

Charles Beach, an economics professor at Queen's University, told a U.S. Senate committee on health, education, labour and pension this past month that the system allows Canada to attract a higher proportion of skilled foreigners than the U.S.

Beach was invited to make a presentation to the committee alongside several U.S. researchers after collaborating on a study of the points system with Carleton University professors Alan Green and Christopher Worswick.

He presented their findings at a research conference earlier this year.

Beach told the committee that prospective immigrants with better education, training and language fluency, as well as people in certain age categories, receive high scores under the Canadian system.

"Those who don't will not be granted admission," said Beach in an interview.

"But you can contrast that with the United States where they have a huge inflow of illegal immigrants and there's every reason to expect probably many if not most haven't even completed high school."

The Ontario study found that 80 per cent of legally admitted immigrants in the U.S. were "family class" immigrants. That is, they were admitted not for their skills, but because they had relatives in the U.S.

In contrast, 55 per cent of immigrants to Canada are "independent economic immigrants."

The findings were based on an analysis of data from Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

The researchers analyzed the characteristics of foreigners who have immigrated to Canada since 1980 and found that they are even better educated than Canadian-born workers.

Wayne Samuelson, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, said Canada's immigrants tend to come from countries with well-developed training and apprenticeship programs.

"But it does raise the question of what we do in our country to ensure we can develop our young people to move into those kinds of jobs, as well," said Samuelson, whose organization represents 700,000 unionized workers in the province.

According to Beach, Canada has the highest per capita immigration in the world, and has been using the point system since 1967.

He said a shift in recent years toward admitting immigrants with a broad range of skills rather than people intended to fill labour shortages in specific fields has been effective in attracting more skilled workers.

On the other hand, studies have shown that some highly skilled and educated immigrants end up underemployed in Canada.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2006...ion-points.html

[Saddle Bronc 124]

WAY overdue.

Also other points, CIC has :

• NO "sibling of citizen" category
  
• no country-specific quotas (for employment, and family categories other than "immediate relative"--spouse or parent of citizen, US does; a good number of these are unused but DOS very rarely releases them)
  

[Kathryn41 3,205]

The under employment aspect is a big one. Many of the licensing organizations are provincial and they don't always agree to recognize the qualifications of the foreign trained in their fields or else set ridiculously high standards - much higher than native born Canadians must meet - for them to be granted a license to practise in Canada. Thus it is that many Ontario communities have a doctor shortage while foreign born doctors are driving cabs in Toronto - the Ontario Medical Association refuses to recognize non-Canadian medical training as valid - and that includes doctors from the US and Britain in some cases. Their reason isn't because the training is substandard, but as a means to 'protect' their own approved doctors first by removing the competition. Things are beginning to improve but it is an uphill battle.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

The under employment aspect is a big one.

I have heard that too. Stories of engineers delivering pizza in Canada are mythical lore in the Indian community here in the States.

[knowledge 0]

The under employment aspect is a big one. Many of the licensing organizations are provincial and they don't always agree to recognize the qualifications of the foreign trained in their fields or else set ridiculously high standards - much higher than native born Canadians must meet - for them to be granted a license to practise in Canada. Thus it is that many Ontario communities have a doctor shortage while foreign born doctors are driving cabs in Toronto - the Ontario Medical Association refuses to recognize non-Canadian medical training as valid - and that includes doctors from the US and Britain in some cases. Their reason isn't because the training is substandard, but as a means to 'protect' their own approved doctors first by removing the competition. Things are beginning to improve but it is an uphill battle.

An example that haunted me...a specialized US lady Dr was training Quebec doctors in the States, then she wanted to move to Qc because her Dr husband was native from there..The province's Dr association did not recognize her skills and asked her to redo her dr scholarship entirely! an article in The Gazette...of 2-3 years ago...

[Mirorgate 0]

The under employment aspect is a big one. Many of the licensing organizations are provincial and they don't always agree to recognize the qualifications of the foreign trained in their fields or else set ridiculously high standards - much higher than native born Canadians must meet - for them to be granted a license to practise in Canada. Thus it is that many Ontario communities have a doctor shortage while foreign born doctors are driving cabs in Toronto - the Ontario Medical Association refuses to recognize non-Canadian medical training as valid - and that includes doctors from the US and Britain in some cases. Their reason isn't because the training is substandard, but as a means to 'protect' their own approved doctors first by removing the competition. Things are beginning to improve but it is an uphill battle.

An example that haunted me...a specialized US lady Dr was training Quebec doctors in the States, then she wanted to move to Qc because her Dr husband was native from there..The province's Dr association did not recognize her skills and asked her to redo her dr scholarship entirely! an article in The Gazette...of 2-3 years ago...

We have this to an extent here in the US also. ECFMG, USMLE... more hoops to jump thru... and even then its not garaunteed to get your license here in the States.

[knowledge 0]

The under employment aspect is a big one. Many of the licensing organizations are provincial and they don't always agree to recognize the qualifications of the foreign trained in their fields or else set ridiculously high standards - much higher than native born Canadians must meet - for them to be granted a license to practise in Canada. Thus it is that many Ontario communities have a doctor shortage while foreign born doctors are driving cabs in Toronto - the Ontario Medical Association refuses to recognize non-Canadian medical training as valid - and that includes doctors from the US and Britain in some cases. Their reason isn't because the training is substandard, but as a means to 'protect' their own approved doctors first by removing the competition. Things are beginning to improve but it is an uphill battle.

An example that haunted me...a specialized US lady Dr was training Quebec doctors in the States, then she wanted to move to Qc because her Dr husband was native from there..The province's Dr association did not recognize her skills and asked her to redo her dr scholarship entirely! an article in The Gazette...of 2-3 years ago...

We have this to an extent here in the US also. ECFMG, USMLE... more hoops to jump thru... and even then its not garaunteed to get your license here in the States.

Sorry, i'm not familiar yet with ECFMG and USMLE...what does it mean?...that dramatic example from The Gazette, tells me that very skilled individuals are not recognized..in Can...and asked to redo everything from 0. In the US i have heared that there are equivalencies edu boards that at least can credit some foreign high education, i think; but it might depend of the fields, i don't know yet ...The field you mentionned is a medical field? In any case, this is very interesting to me...as i search more infos about high edu levels...licensing, etc...

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Sorry, i'm not familiar yet with ECFMG and USMLE...what does it mean?...

I googled both acronyms and the first hits were the relevant ones. Give it a shot.

[CarolineM 0]

When I lived in Manhatten, an indian cab driver I had once had a PHd...but had to drive a cab because he couldn't find work..

Sorry - just had to chime in

[Saddle Bronc 124]

When I lived in Manhatten, an indian cab driver I had once had a PHd...but had to drive a cab because he couldn't find work..

Sorry - just had to chime in

Also, this was quite common in many parts of US in 2002 (I was one of the IT professionals laid off in 2001 due to an end-client budget cut--though it happened 09/28, it was already planned 08/31, and could only find delivery jobs during the period of Jan-Jul 2002 and then had to supplement a part-time site maintenance job with delivery driving).

[knowledge 0]

When I lived in Manhatten, an indian cab driver I had once had a PHd...but had to drive a cab because he couldn't find work..

Sorry - just had to chime in

Yeah, but again, in which field was he? did he try to do some equivalencies?...and bassically, all students work...odd jobs sometimes..!!!and still believe in US many possibilities are available...