Income gap between rich and poor immigrants a lesson for Canadians—Study
by Harleen Kaur - January 25, 2011
Canada, 25th January: A latest study has revealed huge financial gap among the new immigrants in Canada.
Immigrants in Canada at the lower rung of the spectrum are witnessing wage decrease of around 30 percent in the last few decades and these wage drops among immigrants is quite worse than those experienced by native Canadians at the same level of the spectrum.
Rich getting richer, poor getting worse-- The research undertaken by Brahim Boudarbat of Universite de Montreal along with Thomas Lemieux, a University of B.C. economist reveals that the new immigrants in Canada seem to be falling into either of the two extremes. They are either faring better than the native Canadians in terms of their earnings, education and business, or they seem to be getting trapped into a struggling under-class of immigrants.
The report titled’ The Poor Got Poorer’ studied new immigrants in Canada out of which two-thirds are from Asia.
According to the lead author of the study Lemieux, the gap is huge and its worse for immigrants in Canada, especially the male immigrants.
The study funded by the Canada government shows that the accomplishments of recent immigrants in Canada possessing strong French or English language skills, high education, work experience and workplace contacts have gone significantly up in the last few decades.
But the picture is not bright for the immigrant cohort in Canada lagging far behind, the study findings reiterate. This immigrant group comprises of immigrants in the older age-group, possessing limited proficiency in English or French and quite lower levels of education.
Lessons from the study for the Canadian immigrants and native Canadians----The study authors have clarified that the reasons behind comparatively lower earnings by immigrants is not necessarily due to the social injustice meted out to them in Canada.
In fact, it seems to be a natural outcome of several immigrants facing obstacles with the two official languages of Canada, both English and French. Moreover, immigrants also seem to be lagging behind in terms of wage earning due to possessing lower education levels, and/or possessing few years of work experience in Canada.
Suggestions by Study authors----
• Lemieux favors Canada government’s act to favor potential immigrants having proficiency in English or French.
• The government is right in approving potential immigrants having jobs in Canada even before their arrival in Canada.
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