REGINA — A new study from the Fraser Institute is finding that highly educated immigrant workers in the U.S. are performing better than immigrants to Canada.
The study by Jock Finlayson and Steven Globerman points to a gap in performance of those highly educated immigrants between the two countries, and how to narrow it.
Finlayson, a Senior Fellow of the Fraser Institute, spoke to SaskToday about some of the issues Canada is facing compared to the Americans.
“Both countries attract significant numbers of well-educated immigrants. We're known for that in Canada. And there's a fair number of highly educated immigrants who, at least up until now, have been entering the United States and settling there and working there,” said Finlayson.
“Highly educated immigrants, particularly those who've got credentials in science, engineering, technology fields, seem to do better in the U.S. job market than they do in Canada, particularly when they're benchmarked against the native-born population with the same credentials.”
When he says they are doing better, it is in terms of employment rates and earnings than similarly qualified Americans, “whereas that's not the case in Canada.”
The survey compares how immigrants to both countries fared when compared to the population who have similar qualifications but were actually born in the country rather than coming in as immigrants.
When the comparison is made to how those immigrants fared compared to native-born populations in both countries, in the US their employment rate is 1.2 per cent higher while in Canada it is 9.5 per cent less. For earnings, it is eight per cent higher in the US compared to 16 per cent less in Canada.
Finlayson said there were a couple of factors why this is happening. One is that the USA has more entry pathways for highly qualified people, the H1-B visa in particular.
He said the H1-B visa has “been a very successful U.S. program that has brought in highly skilled people on temporary visas, which can then get converted into sort of permanent residency.”
The other factor he points to is that the USA has “a more dynamic and successful business environment in a lot of the industries that employ people with these kinds of qualifications.”
He points to aerospace, engineering, IT, AI, biotechnology and life sciences, all technology based industries which “tend to be larger and more successful even on a population-adjusted basis in the United States than they are in Canada.”
“So we speculate that that's also a reason why many of the most skilled immigrants are attracted into the U.S. because the opportunities are greater and sort of success breeds success in a very fundamental sense. And we don't have quite the same kind of dynamic job opportunities in technology fields here in Canada.”
Finlayson said there are a couple of policy changes that Canada can do. One is “perhaps borrowing from some of the immigration programs that the U.S. has used over the years to bring in highly skilled technology workers.”
In particular, he points to the H1-B visa and said “we don't have anything quite like that in Canada, so we suggest tweaking the Canadian immigration programming to maybe create some new pathways for people who can come in and work in these kinds of jobs.”
But the more fundamental solution, he said, is to improve the business environment in Canada for the kinds of industries that have been thriving in the United States and creating jobs that those highly skilled immigrants can fill.
“So it's more fundamentally about improving the economic and business environment here so more companies will want to grow, create highly skilled positions in Canada and grow their footprint here over time.”
Finlayson’s comments about the H1-B visa are notable because of changes coming from the White House. President Donald Trump recently announced he is now placing a fee of $100,000 on anybody who comes in on that visa — a move that potentially could discourage applications from potential immigrants to the USA.
Finlayson said this is “probably not a very good idea for the U.S., maybe helpful for us.”
He said they feel there is a window that has opened up for Canada because of shifting American attitudes and policies towards immigrants, as embodied in the policies being implemented by the Trump administration.
“I think this is something Canada should be acting on. If the U.S. is going to be less welcoming of highly skilled and highly educated immigrants, then Canada should be doing more to target those people that come here.”
Finlayson said he would go even further and say that instead of “bringing in all kinds of lower-skilled immigrants, we should really be pivoting immigration policy in Canada toward targeting higher-skilled people. And with Trump in power in the U.S., the opportunity has arrived, I think, to do that.”
Finlayson said he believes Canada ought to do something different from the temporary foreign worker program, which he believes is not bringing in top global talent to Canada.
“Their purpose seems to be different. And at a time of rapidly rising unemployment among young people, it's probably a good idea to scale back those TFW programs. But regardless of that, the temporary foreign worker program has not been an effective mechanism for bringing in highly skilled immigrants into Canada.”
Finlayson also spoke about the related issue of international students. He said the U.S. under President Trump “seems to be less welcoming of international students, including in science, engineering, technology disciplines. And the U.S. has always been very attractive for what we call high-ability immigrants and students. And if they're going to become less welcoming, then there's an opportunity for us to target more highly educated international students who want to do further graduate and professional work in Canada. And that's different than what we have been doing to some extent.”
Finlayson said there has been a huge surge in international students coming to Canada, but most of them are “actually studying in programs that don't lead to high-paying jobs, like basic business diploma programs and things like that.”
“So if I was in charge, I'd be pivoting away from that and truly trying to attract the best and brightest in terms of international students who want to study in fields that lead to high-paying jobs. And that will be an opportunity for us to up our game in both of those areas.”
