In 2019, Canada had over 19 million paid employees, 5 million of whom were immigrants. In Canada, more than 25% of all jobs are held by immigrant workers. This is a common situation all around the world, especially due to declining birth rates in industrialized countries.
An immigrant is a person who settles in a foreign country or host country, temporarily or permanently, after leaving their home country.
In most developed countries, birth rates have significantly declined over the past few years, leading to three main problems:
Governments of developed countries open their borders to encourage immigrants to come work in their country, aiming to benefit both the economy and immigrants.
The declining birth rate in developed countries is leading to an aging population, meaning that the number of people aged 65 and over is increasing compared to those under 64. For example, in 2018, 17.2% of Canadians were aged 65 and over which represents an increase compared to previous decades.
Population aging slows down demographic growth. Immigration helps bridge the age gap between young and old people to facilitate population growth in countries where births are declining, such as Canada, France and Russia.
Population growth is the increase in the population of a region, country or continent over a given period of time.
Population aging means there are more old people leaving the labour market to retire than there are young people entering the labour market. This leads to increasing labour shortage in certain industries.
In 2020, according to a survey conducted by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), nearly 40% of Canadian SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees) were struggling to recruit workers. In Quebec, 75% of SMEs are facing this problem. In Canada, construction and food services have been hardest hit, but hospitality, healthcare, personal services (hairdressing, mechanics, etc.) and professional services (psychologists, optometrists, etc.) are also short on workers. On average, 4.1% of jobs in these industries are vacant, amounting to tens of thousands of unfilled jobs. Immigration is one way to alleviate the problems related to population aging.
Fruit and vegetable production is facing several problems. Between 2014 and 2016, the vacancy rate of agricultural jobs reached 7%, the highest among all Canadian industries. During this time, the labour shortage was very high.
The sector is heavily dependent on a seasonal workforce that only works during certain times of the year. In 2015, 87% of these jobs in Quebec were seasonal. During the harvest period, farmers need this seasonal labour, which is essential for the industry. In 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, countries closed their borders, depriving growers of their migrant workforce. This affected the production, quantity and variety of fruit and vegetables available in grocery stores.
Declining birth rates lead to a declining population. When a country’s population decreases, its production tends to decrease, leading to an economic downturn. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) suffer from labour shortages and often have to refuse new contracts, hindering their growth. For the economy to grow, the population must also grow. This is why most developed countries open their borders to immigration.
Canada opened its borders to immigrant labour to increase the country’s population and fill tens of thousands of jobs, boosting its economy. According to a study conducted by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in 2016, 21.9% of the Canadian population came from immigration.
In 2017, 35% of jobs in the hospitality and food service industries were held by immigrants.
Source: ChameleonsEye, Shutterstock.
Immigrants face a number of barriers when looking for jobs, including:
Even though language skills are tested, the country’s government may decide to speed up the immigration process to better serve the situation and needs of companies. As a result, many immigrants are not proficient in the official language of the host country, making it harder for them to integrate into the working world. Immigrants may struggle to find a job because they do not speak the language used in their workplace.
Immigrants often struggle to have the skills and training they gained in their home countries recognized by their new country, hindering their ability to work in their chosen field. Instead, they may end up in jobs that require lower qualifications than what they have, leading to a situation where they are overqualified for their current work.
For immigrants to have their skills recognized, they must have work experience that is seen as relevant to the host country’s government. Standards often vary from country to country, which can be a disadvantage to some. After applying for recognition of prior learning, someone with 15 years of experience as an engineer in another country may only be granted 2 years of relevant experience by the host country. So, one of the challenges that immigrants face is having their achievements fully recognized.
Recognition of prior learning assesses applicants’ prior education and experiential learning to determine if they have enough experience to work in the host country.
With the exception of the USA, unemployment rates are higher among those born outside the country than those born within the country, which demonstrates that immigrants face several obstacles.
|
Country |
Population born within the country |
Population born outside the country |
|---|---|---|
|
Germany |
2.9% |
6% |
|
Canada |
5.7% |
6.4% |
|
Denmark |
4.3% |
9.8% |
|
United States |
4.1% |
3.5% |
|
Iceland |
2.5% |
5% |
|
Norway |
2.9% |
7.9% |
The United States is one of the few countries where the unemployment rate is higher among the population born within the country than born elsewhere. This is partly due to the fact that Indigenous, African-American and Hispanic populations are more severely affected by unemployment than other groups. For example, the unemployment rate for Black and Hispanic citizens is above 6% for the population born in the USA and a little over 4% for those born abroad. Why are these groups most affected by unemployment? Several factors can explain this situation, including discrimination, inaccessible education and geographical distribution (too many people in one place where not enough jobs are available or the inverse: too many people in a remote location where there are no jobs).
Finding employment facilitates integration in the host country. Workplace discussions improve language fluency and broaden social circles, creating valuable new networks.