Barrie Wallace from Mississauga, Canada writes: Simply put, Canada brings in too many migrants with skills that are not needed.
There is absolutely no connection between Canada's immigration policies

and the realities of the labour market. We bring more immigrants than

our economy can hope to absorb; and, we fail to match the migrants'

skills to occupations that are in high demand.
Canada's point system for accessing skilled workers favours highly

educated immigrants: 84 percent of these migrants have a university

education. Unfortunately, these highly educated workers enter a labour

market that is supersaturated with university educated people.
In 2001, the number of recent university graduates from Canadian

engineering schools who entered the labour market exceeded the five

year average of newly created engineering jobs by 26 percent. The

number of foreign trained engineers who arrived in 2001 exceeded the

domestic supply of recent engineering graduates by 82 percent.
Forty-five (45) percent of the engineering jobs created in a five year

period went to foreign trained engineers. However, these jobs were

secured by only 25 percent of the foreign trained engineers that

arrived in this period. Seventy-five (75) percent of the foreign

trained engineers were not needed.
When we recruit workers from foreign climes, our immigration policies

should have a very high probability of selecting workers whose skills

are really needed by our employers. Prospective immigrants should be

rigorously accessed towards matching their occupational and language

skills to Canada's labour market needs prior to accepting them in

Canada.
Australia has a successful points system. Six months after their

arrival, Australian skilled immigrants have an unemployment rate of 6.7

percent in the first six months of their arrival. Within 1 year, the

unemployment rate drops to 2.7 percent. 30 percent of skilled immgrants

in Canada are unemployed.

* Posted Dec. 13, 2005 at 2:28 PM EST