Steve Sailer, a Conservative American journalist, found out the hard way that we don’t.

He completed the Citizenship and Immigration Canada Self-Assessment Worksheet in 2001 and scored 61 points. The passing mark for consideration of an interview is 60.

(The current passing mark is 67) >>> Take the test

Sailer still wasn’t eligible for immigration, because at the time because he was only a full-time journalist for eight months, and the minimum requirement was a year.

But journalists are still highly favoured by our immigration system. Sailer says,

How much formal education or training does your occupation require? To be frank, I’ve never noticed that journalism requires any. As irascible basketball coach Bobby Knight likes to point out to reporters, “Everybody learns to write by the second grade, but then most of us move on to other things.”

Yet, somebody has apparently hoodwinked the trusting Canadian authorities into awarding journalists 15 out of 18 points, the same as they give computer systems analysts and tree-service technicians.

Part of the reason for valuing education in our current immigration system is the perception that they will contribute to Canadian society. Our immigration target rate (often not met) of one percent of the Canadian population is three times higher than that of the U.S.

And although we do take on many seeking political asylum or refugees from war-torn areas, we do try to attract the best and the brightest.

Sailer claims,

Choosing immigrants wisely can make a big difference in the quality of life of current citizens. Support for the Canadian approach was uncovered by a National Academy of Sciences study of immigrants to America. It found that immigrants with below a high school education cost the country $90,000 net over their lifetimes, while those with the equivalent of a high school education cost the United States $30,000, but immigrants with a college education or more brought a net benefit to the nation of $100,000.

One of the interesting ancillary findings was that existing minority groups such as African-Americans are not adversely affected by high immigration rates, unless they live in areas of high immigration.

But a bigger challenge that we have in Canada is recognizing the credentials of those that do come here. A 2004 study by Ana Ferrer and W. Craig Riddell in the UBC Department of Economics found that the education and work experience of immigrants is valued far less than native-born citizens.

The Conference Board of Canada estimated in 2001 that this untapped human potential costs the Canadian economy a whopping $3.2 billion a year. The Conference Board also estimates a labour deficit of 1 million jobs within the next 20 years, positions for which immigrations could be invaluable.

Statistics Canada also did a study in 2003 called Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada: Process, progress and prospect that found that the recognition of foreign credentials and relevant Canadian work experience were the two major hurdles that immigrants faced when coming to Canada. The majority of immigrants to Canada do not end up working in their field of vocation and training in their previous country.

There are a number of governmental programs that seek to address these specific issues. Mike Colle, [Former] Minister of Immigration and Citizenship in Ontario, said in 2006,

‘Let’s make it possible for these people to work in their fields and then we’ll have a gain for the foreign-trained individuals but also for all the communities that need engineers, doctors, nurses.’

But there is also a need for private industry to take a more assertive role in recognizing the valuable skills these people have, and do more to integrate immigrants into their work force.

This realization will likely only occur when employers acknowledge and accept the competitive advantage that diversifying their workforce offers them.

Updates

A proposal before the House that would allow the Immigration Minister to circumvent the point system is being opposed by civil rights groups that could be used in discriminatory ways.

George Abraham picks on on this in Al-Jazeera.

More Resources

The Labour Market Experience of Immigrants, Timothy Owen, Director of World Education Services

Making a Visible Difference – The Contribution of Visible Minorities to Canadian Economic Growth. The Conference Board of Canada.

Policy Memo: Canada’s immigration and integration policies: A multi-national evaluation of labour market integration of skilled immigrants. Oliver Schmidtke, Mirko Kovacev and Beatrice Marry. University of Victoria.