Current policies good for short-term labour crisis; what about the future?

Like most of the OECD countries, Canada has a selective immigration system that focuses on highly skilled immigrants from around the globe. This has created huge holes in the lower-skilled Canadian workforce, where many employers are unable to get the required number of workers. The International Outlook 2008 report of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) recommends that OECD countries adapt their immigration and labour migration policies to be more in line with the future demand of workers in all economic sectors, whether high-skilled or low-skilled workers.

To satisfy the needs for low-skilled workers, more than 2.5 million temporary workers migrated to OECD countries in the year 2006, and this is three times more than permanent labour immigrants.

In order to manage the recruitment of the lower-skilled migrants, most of the OECD countries have temporary work permit programs in place. In recent years, the Temporary Foreign Worker Program has been expanded in Canada so that it becomes easier for employers to recruit the much needed lower-skilled workforce on a temporary basis.

John Martin, Director for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs at the OECD said that these programs have been very effective in minimizing short-term problems, but they fail to address permanent labour needs.

He said that some of the current and future labour needs in OECD countries are related to low-skilled job and many are likely to be long-term in nature.

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria said that constructing the immigration policy of a country on the assumption that labour immigrants will only stay here for short term is not a great idea and it is not going to work.