LABOUR-CANADA: Skilled Immigrants Wanted, No PhD Required

By Marty Logan Reprint | | Print |

Marty Logan

MONTREAL, Apr 17 2002 (IPS) - Think Canada only wants immigrants with PhDs or computer degrees? Think again: Butchers and welders are just two groups that have been admitted into the country recently as one of the world’s richest nations deals with a shortage of blue-collar workers.

“We’ve had a lot of people who have come in the trades areas, like welders, carpenters, metal finishers, machinists, mechanics,” says Gerry Clement, assistant deputy minister of immigration in the western province of Manitoba.

“Our major source countries have been traditional areas of immigration, with the Philippines the highest, followed by Germany, the former Yugoslavia, the Ukraine and China.”

Immigration is a shared responsibility of the federal government in Ottawa and Canada’s 13 provinces and territories.

The country has long filled labour shortages with temporary workers, who have been permitted entry only if they already have a job offer and with the understanding that once here they cannot apply for permanent residency. In 2000, more than 70,000 permits were granted to temporary workers, a slight increase over the previous peak a dozen years earlier, says the department of citizenship and immigration.

But in recent years, industry has amplified complaints that the temporary worker programme was too slow to meet the demands of a fast-changing economy. Ottawa responded with a pilot project for the booming information technology sector that permits software experts to enter the country without a specific job offer.

The Bank of Canada has continued to warn, however, that the shortage of high-tech workers threatens to expand to other industries, including construction, engineering, truck transportation and food services and accommodations.

While Ottawa works with business to fill temporary needs, Manitoba and seven other provinces and territories have cut deals with the federal government to get more say in choosing the immigrants they bring in for economic reasons. Under Canada’s immigration system, this economic class accounts for about two-thirds of newcomers, with family class and refugees making up the rest.

The country plans to admit 200,000 immigrants of all types in 2002.

“What it provides us with is a direct opportunity to talk to individuals who intend to come to Manitoba,” Clement says. “Anyone who’s applying as an independent immigrant to the Government of Canada, we don’t know about them (but) in our programme, there’s an actual application form, there’s an assessment process.”

Under the provincial nominee programme (PNP), the provinces each create a list of high-demand occupations. For example, the eastern province of New Brunswick is looking for machinists and refrigeration and air-conditioning mechanics, among others. Manitoba is searching for bricklayers and heavy-duty mechanics. All provinces continue to recruit software engineers and other computer experts.

“The response to our programme was overwhelming,” says Clement. Two hundred workers and their families were accepted in 1998, 450 in 1999, 500 in 2000 and 750 in 2001. This year’s target is 1,000. One applicant in four is approved, adds Clement.

The PNP is expected to grow as Canada relies increasingly on immigrants to run its economy. The period 1996-2001 was the first in which immigration outpaced natural growth in the country, according to the 2001 census. Canada’s population was slightly more than 30 million in 2001.

While the provinces handpick some of their immigrants, Ottawa is making it more difficult for most economic migrants to enter the country, critics say. Its proposed immigration bill puts more emphasis on education and language skills than the previous law and will block the workers Canada desperately needs, they contend.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Association of Management Consultants have criticised the draft legislation.

It is rumoured the government will change the rules to allow temporary workers to apply for immigrant status while in the country, something that Clement says Manitoba already permits.

Some desperate employers are paying to fly in temporary workers from overseas. A building boom in the country’s largest city has created a shortage of skilled tradesmen, so two weeks ago the Toronto construction industry welcomed its first batch of workers from Ukraine, Russia, the Philippines, and Chile. The men are settling in well, says Jim Murphy of the Greater Toronto Homebuilders Association.

Like the software engineers in the pilot project, the construction workers, who include bricklayers, carpenters and welders, were fast-tracked after the industry and the federal government worked out a deal, which includes an industry guarantee that training programmes are in place for young Canadians so that shortages remain only temporary.

But “it can be a tough sell to interest young people in the construction industry,” says Murphy. “It’s hard work and you’re outdoors.”

The tradesmen are paid industry wages — about 13 dollars per hour — and get their airfares and the first three months of health insurance covered.

Temporary workers might still be getting a bad deal, says Nancy Worsfold, executive director of the Ottawa-Carleton Immigrant Services Organisation.

“It creates a class of people who are vulnerable because usually they are beholden to their employer,” she says. “You know that if your employer fires you, not only do you lose your job, you lose your country.”

A report last year by the United Farm Workers of America union found that Mexican agricultural labourers in Canada had inadequate working conditions and were forced to pay for government programmes, like unemployment insurance, that they had no reasonable chance of collecting.

Nevertheless, say officials, this year the number of Mexican workers, who spend up to eight months picking crops such as tomatoes and tobacco, will increase to 13,000 this year, from 11,000 in 2001.