The Canadian labor market data has shown clearly that immigrants and non-immigrants have high income differences. Majority of immigrants’ income is far much below that of non-immigrants counterparts with the same level of education and experience. This is attributable to the factors discussed below.
First and foremost, immigrants’ education received outside Canada is valued less than that offered by Canadian institutions. This has made many immigrants with high levels of education to be undermined in the labor market. Instances where salary scale is fixed according to ones education qualifications immigrants are usually ranked a scale lower than their native counterparts. Immigrants who face this sought of discrimination are mainly from Africa, Asia and Latin America. However, immigrants from Europe are not discriminated in this basis because their institutions are recognized in Canada (Murphy, and Finis , 204). This has made many immigrants less competitive in the labor market than their native peers.
Secondly, academic credentials of immigrants are doubted by many Canadian employers. This has left many immigrants under employed. Data from Canadian labor market has shown that, many immigrants with high levels of education like degrees are performing jobs which are far much below their academic qualification. Many of the immigrants who serve as drives, clerks, sectaries hold degree certificates (Ferrer and Riddle ,4). However, immigrants from Europe do not face this discrimination because many institutions In Europe are recognized in Canada and they are traditionally known to offer quality education. In addition, Immigrant professionals looking forward to venture into private practices may face a lot of problems as they try to acquire certificates from relevant professional bodies in Canada. This delay in permission amount to lost earnings and low income. All this withstanding, Canadians may not feel very comfortable when receiving professional services from immigrants especially from Africa. This has given residential private professional competitive advantage above their immigrant counterparts.
Third, language difference has dealt immigrants a severe blow on their earnings in Canadian labor market. Research has shown that, Immigrants who are not fluent in either English or French have lower levels of income than natives with the same level of education. It has been observed that over the last decade Canadian employers are not comfortable employing people with communication problems because they slow down flow of work in their organizations. Given that some immigrants have different mother tongue from either English or French they are usually unable to get jobs fitting their levels of educational qualifications and experience (Murphy, and Finis , 205). Their inability to communicate also affects immigrant entrepreneurs as they carry out their activities this has given the natives upper hand in entrepreneurial activities. on the other hand, Private practicing professionals like lawyers have also been severely affected by language problems because they attract fewer clients than their native counterparts with the same qualifications. This has made many professional immigrants to remain under employed until they gain proficiency in local official languages.
Fourth, Immigrants from Asia face highest doubt about their educational qualification because little is known about quality of their education. It is clear that, many Canadian employers have little knowledge on Asian educational institutions and as well as educational system. This is because there is minimal interaction between educational institutions in Canada with those in Asia. This has made it very difficult for Canadian employers to accept Asian academic qualification in addition to knowing how efficient they can perform their jobs. Unacceptability of the credentials has made it very difficult for Asian immigrants to get jobs commeasuring their academic and skill qualifications leaving then with alternative of poorly paying jobs.
Filthy, Immigrants from Africa, Asia and Latin America work experience are usually undermined. According to Green and Worwick, 6 foreign experiences from these countries have been discounted and this has given natives an upper hand when competing for jobs in Canadian labor market. It is clear that experienced workers are more efficient in caring out their functions than inexperienced workers and this makes them to earn more. Therefore, discrediting experience of immigrants has affected their levels of income and has also hampered their chances of getting promotions which come alongside additional allowances.
Sixth, recently many immigrants lack immediate ‘networks’ in Canadian labor market. They therefore take very long before they know where to get jobs befitting their academic qualifications and experience. This is unlikely to happen to natives who have taken long enough to learn labor market dynamics. During the period of confusion this immigrants remain unemployed and their levels of income is less than that of non-immigrants counterparts.
Apart from employment income, social transfers are important income source for low income population. Over years despite many immigrants forming largest part of low income population they have not completely benefited from this source of income. This has made them to persistently earn even less than native low income earners native counterparts (Firrer and Riddell, 5).
Lastly, many immigrants’ qualifications may not rhyme very well with the basic requirements in many job openings. This makes them under employed as they try to upscale their academic qualifications.
In conclusion, the earnings of many immigrants has fallen below that of non immigrants due to employers doubting immigrants: quality of their education, authenticity of their academic certificates, experience immigrants claim and other factor like language proficiency, poor understanding of operations of labor markets, failing to claim social transfers and poor fit between immigrants qualifications and labor requirements.
firrer and riddell. Immigrants' education and required job skills. 2004. Print
Green, David A. and Christopher Worswick. Immigrant earnings profiles in presence of human
Capital investment: measuring cohort and macroeconomic. University of British Columbia and Carleton University. 2004 . print
Murphy, Kevin M. and Finis Welch. “Empirical age-earnings profiles” Journal of Labor
Economics. 1990. Vol. 8, no. 2. p. 202-229.
