Very recent immigrants to Canada are struggling in the job market, with those from Southeast Asia being the only group to buck the trend, says Statistics Canada.
Of the Southeast Asians, however, only those from the Philippines were on par with the Canadian-born work force, released Wednesday.
"Those born elsewhere in Asia (including the Middle East) as well as individuals born in Latin America, Europe and Africa all had higher unemployment rates and lower employment rates in 2006 than their Canadian-born counterparts," it said.
The study, based on 2006 data, looked at three groupings of immigrants:
- Very recent immigrants, who had landed between 2001 and 2006;
- Recent immigrants, who had landed between 1996 and 2001; and
- Established immigrants, who had been in Canada more than 10 years.
European immigrants classified as recent or established were about as successful in the work force as Canadian-born people, the study found.
Europe has been a traditional source of immigrants for Canada, but that's been shifting since the mid-1980s.
Asians, including people from the Middle East, formed the largest group of immigrants as of 2006.
"For all Asians aged 25 to 54, their employment rate was much weaker than that of the Canadian born, especially among very recent immigrants," the study said. "Their employment rate was only 63.8%, compared with 83.1% for their counterparts born in Canada."
Those born in the Philippines, however, and who were very recent immigrants had an unemployment rate of 5.4 per cent. That's slightly more than the 4.9 per cent of Canadian-born workers, it said.
"Immigrants born in Africa experienced difficulties in the labour market, regardless of when they had landed," the study found.
For very recent African arrivals in 2006, the unemployment rate was 20.8 per cent -- more than four times higher than that of Canadian-born people, it said.
Interpreting the numbers
Jason Gilmore, a Statistics Canada analyst, told Canada AM on Wednesday that he couldn't comment on any public policy implications of the study.
However, "we do know that some of the factors related to securing employment include issues such language, level of education, strength of social networks and foreign credential recognition," he said.
Immigration lawyer Ravi Jain told Canada AM that virtually all this country's labour market growth will come from immigration.
"Yet we're seeing that immigrants are having a hard time integrating into the labour force," he said.
Two major reasons are the way we select immigrants and give short shrift to their credentials, Jain said.
"We're leaving out the trades," such as construction workers and truckers, he said.
That's because Canada's immigration "points" system places a high value on education, he said.
But when Canada does let in professionals, those people can't get their foreign credentials recognized by Canadian professional bodies, Jain said.
"On the white collar level ... they're not integrating into the labour force," he said.
Ontario is the only province moving ahead. It has a fairness commissioner who can fine bodies like the College of Physicians and Surgeons that don't move to reduce unfair barriers to immigrants, he said.
