October 5, 2006 Source: :
http://qnc.queensu.ca/story_loader.php?id=45264b326b641 Canada's immigrant screening
successful: Queen's
study Canada
attracts a higher percentage of skilled workers than the United States - a
Queen's University finding that has captured the attention of U.S.
immigration officials. Our country's focus on educational level, language fluency and youth through
a distinctive "points" system for admission appears to be working as
intended, says Economics professor Charles Beach, co-author of the paper and
head of the university's John Deutsch Institute. "While this all makes sense, it's the first time it has been tested with
valid measuring tools," he points out, adding: "Ironically, our findings
have attracted more interest south of the border than from government
officials in Ottawa." The contentious issue of illegal immigrants entering the United States has
moved immigration policy onto the front burner there, notes Dr. Beach, who
was invited last month to share his findings with the U.S. Senate Committee
on Health, Education, Labor and Pension. With so many unskilled immigrants
coming into the U.S. illegally, the Americans are very interested in a
system like Canada's, to increase the skill level of their legal immigrants. Dr. Beach testified, with professors from Harvard and Princeton, at a
hearing into immigration in general and the point system in particular.
"There are lessons to be learned and insights to be offered to U.S.
immigration policy from the Canadian experience over the 1980s and 1990s." Co-authors of the paper are Queen's economist Alan Green and Christopher
Worswick from Carleton University. Using a unique database obtained from Citizenship and Immigration Canada,
the team examined principal characteristics of all immigrants who landed in
this country since 1980. Among factors they considered were age, education,
training and language fluency, all of which are required information under
the point-system evaluation. The researchers used a statistical technique called regression analysis to
separate out the effect of other factors like the business cycle, employment
rates in Canada and the U.S., and the relative health of both countries'
economies. "After controlling for these other variables, it appears that
changing Canada's immigration policy to the point system had the desired
effect - of improving the quality of skill attributes of incoming
immigrants," says Dr. Beach. The study also found that increasing the total number of immigrants leads to
a slightly lower average skill level of workers being admitted, he adds. With the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, Canada admits
about 55 per cent as "independent economic immigrants" while 80 per cent of
legal immigrants to the United States come in as "family class" where the
objective is family unification. (The third category, humanitarian
immigrants, are largely refugees.) Since its introduction in 1967, Canada's point system has shifted from
putting weight on specific occupations to looking at more broadly defined
skills. This change was recommended in the mid-1990s by a Ministry panel, on
which Dr. Beach served. "We shifted away from a 'gap-filling' approach that
didn't work very well to a system looking for people who will be able to
adapt to a changing economy and needs." The next stage for the Queen's team will be to study how well and how
quickly immigrants assimilate and adjust into the Canadian labour market.
Using more refined and updated data, they also hope to look at factors
affecting this, such as economic cycles, proficiency in English or French,
and economic integration success according to skin colour or race. To learn more about Research at Queen's ... Contacts: Nancy Dorrance, Queen's News & Media Services, 613.533.2869
Lorinda Peterson, Queen's News & Media Services, 613.533.3234 Attention broadcasters: Queen's has facilities to provide broadcast quality
audio and video feeds. For television interviews, we can provide a live,
real-time double ender from Kingston fibre optic cable. Please call for
details.
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