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Published : 24 Jun 2022, 04:06 AM
From the days of its building giant transcontinental railroad, famously known as the Canadian Pacific Railway, or CPR, in the late nineteenth century, to the recent decade of positioning itself as a knowledge economy, Canada has attracted millions of foreigners.
Human capital, the talented immigrants coming from foreign shores, have contributed significantly to growing Canada's economy. This knowledge economy, a term frequently used in the 21st century, is a direct result of the productivity of human capital. Canada's immigration policy played a crucial role in this calculus.
Since 2015, Canada's policy has tilted toward demand-driven immigration to meet its growing labour shortages. The scenario has become increasingly evident in skilled immigration with the shift towards market-oriented economic immigration.
In selecting skilled immigrants from countries around the world, labour market impact assessment used to play a significant part until recently in ranking the candidates from the pools of profiles in an online system called express entry.
The policy served and is still serving Canada well in building the economy and maintaining the population growth. In the new procedures, thanks to the growing demand for skilled human capital, many immigration pathways have removed the hurdle of labour market impact assessment by removing the pre-requisite of having a job offered by prospective employers.
Since opening in Jan 2015, the express entry has been touted as a "dating site," coined by the then immigration minister, much like an online matchmaker, connecting immigrants to employers and provinces. It has been a reliable conduit of a pool of select candidates from which employers can connect with would-be immigrants, and provinces can express their interest in nominating the suitable ones. The latest changes have paved the way for would-be immigrants to enter the country and into the economy without going through the much-touted 'match-making' processes with employers.
Knowledge economy and human capital go hand in hand. Human capital is a person's knowledge, skill and experience, predicting social adaptability and broad economic establishment.
Canada's immigration regulations state that the federal skilled worker class is intended to be "a class of persons who are skilled workers and who may become permanent residents based on their ability to become economically established in Canada." To determine whether a person "will be able to become economically established in Canada, they must be assessed on the basis of, among other things, education. Accordingly, points are to be awarded based on the level of education attained, thus contributing to a person's overall human capital score.
Canada's economic immigration, through its selection criteria, attracts a mobile pool of global talents with an ultimate pathway to citizenship within a reasonable timeframe. However, the pandemic in the last two years has slowed down the process contributing to a sizable backlog and increasing the number of applicants in the skilled category. As a result, nearly half a million applications are "in process" with the CIC.
The situation in Afghanistan and later in Ukraine contributed to the backlog as Canada processed and welcomed thousands of refugees from those war-ravaged countries.
Before the pandemic hit the world, economic immigrants used to make up half of Canada′s annual immigration target of a third of a million people. Most of the over a hundred thousand economic immigrants admitted to Canada annually are skilled workers and their accompanying family members.
The points system calculated the human capital and adaptability of skilled workers based on numerical assessment, culminating in the Express Entry system in the recent decade.
Unskilled labourers do not qualify for the human capital and adaptability criteria and thus remain excluded from economic immigration. The labour market that was vital during the late nineteen century has steadily given in to the human capital of the twenty-first century.
The rise of Canada's knowledge economy could be a boon for a growing population in southeast Asian countries. Bangladesh is a case in point. Bangladeshi youths, with their increasing participation in the English medium education, could be a prospect for economic immigration in Canada for their age and adaptability owing to international standard academic credentials and work experiences.
In addition, there are established credential recognition mechanisms in place in Canada. Those tools generate a win-win situation for Canada and individual immigrants for their economic integration and socio-economic conditioning.
Canada touts itself as a top destination for global talent and thus wants to ensure that 'businesses and employers have access to the skilled workers they need to grow and succeed.'
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Manish Paul is a licenced Canadian immigration consultant; Md Asiuzzaman is an educator. Both of them are based in Toronto.
