The Contributions of Immigration to the Contemporary Canadian Economy
Canada has a long and rich history of immigration that is embedded deeply into the nation. “The first inhabitants of Canada where the Eskimo people, which where believed to have migrated from Asia through arctic Siberia”(“Immigration and Canadian economic history”, p.1 n.d.). Canada is a country with sparse population and a vast landmass.it is faced with the issue of labour shortage, brain drain and retiring of baby boomers (population aging) (“Population Density of Canada”, 2016). This has inclined the Canadian government to recruit and actively search for immigrants to fill the workforce. The contributions of immigration to contemporary Canadian economy can be positive or negative, however there are arguably more positive impacts than negative.
Canada opens its door for thousands of immigrants and temporary foreign workers each year. It is my understanding that the aim of current immigration system in Canada is to encourage migration of youthful, bilingual, multicultural and high-skilled individuals into the county, in order to build human capital for Canada's ageing labor market. In recent years Canada’s support for immigration has increased due to the shortage of labor in specific professions and the recent exodus of young people abroad. (“What's our future immigration strategy”, p. A14 2012.). In my opinion, there are certain immigration programs and factors that contribute to the contemporary Canadian immigration; their are, point system, Education, adaptability& integration, and employment arrangement.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) recently introduced a point system to recruit skilled workers migrating to Canada. This system, being one of the many immigration procedures, has, and will, continue to impact positively into the contemporary Canadian economy. (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2007) The system reduces the migration of immigrants of older age bracket, and ensures that younger skilled workers of productive age bracket are admitted into Canada, As result of this, younger skilled immigrants with more productive years to render are selected to migrate into Canada. (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2012). Irrespective of this, there have been bottlenecks in the system, which have hindered younger professionals from integration into the labor force. For example, in the medical sector to replace the current ageing professionals in this field. According to professor Constantine E. Passaris “Our province will soon face the perfect demographic storm. This takes the form of declining birth rates, a shrinking and aging provincial population, the retirement of the baby boomers, labour shortages in specific occupations and the exodus of our young men and women for employment opportunities in Western Canada and overseas.” (“What's our future immigration strategy?” pA14, 2012). In line with this, I am of the opinion that some of these systems put in place by the immigration Canada has worked for some sectors of the Canadian economy but has not worked so well in others, recruiting younger skilled professionals to migrate to Canada will make a tangible contributions to the economy and reduces the effects of an aging population.
An issue faced by the Canadian workforce; where by immigrants at work cannot communicate effectively with their coworkers, which reduces productivity in the workplace. As result of this issue, Current language and adaptability procedures have been introduced by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, which has greatly impacted the Canadian economy in a profound way. Citizenship and immigration Canada introduced English and French language exams, which must be passed by all immigrants. This has greatly improved integration and adaptability of immigrant and bridged the communication gap amongst immigrants and Canadian citizens in the workplace. In my opinion, these exams are pre requisite to helped reduce social tension and increasing integration amongst Canadians and immigrants in work force, it also promotes positive economic well being amongst the population because immigrant will be able to hold/keep their jobs for a longer period. An example of an adaptability and integration program that assists immigrants with settling in to Canada is the ‘Manitoba start program’. The Manitoba start program implemented in the province of Manitoba introduces immigrants into Canadian way of life and integration process. The Manitoba start program ensures that immigrants know what the Canadian society expect from them and what the immigrant are required to do in order to fully integrate into the Canadian system. This contributes to economic productivity and impacts in the contemporary Canadian economy. (Manitoba start, 2016)