GTA FACT SHEET

The Importance of Immigrant Labour Market Integration for Businesses, the Local Economy and Society in the Greater Toronto Area

IMMIGRANTS ARE AN INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT PART OF THE LABOUR FORCE

 Canada has arguably the most multicultural population among industrialized nations. Toronto has the highest percentage of foreign-born residents among cities in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

 According to the 2006 census, half of Toronto’s population (1,237,720 persons) was born outside of Canada, up from 48% in 1996.1

 In 2005, roughly 43% of all newcomers to Canada settled in the Greater Toronto Area.2 Between 2001 and 2006, almost one-quarter of all new immigrants to Canada settled in Toronto, specifically.3

 In 2006, half of all immigrants in Toronto had lived in Canada for less than 15 years.4

HOW IMMIGRANTS ARE FARING

 Immigrants to Canada often experience difficulty finding jobs on par with their skills and education. According to Statistics Canada, 70% of newcomers said they had problems in the job finding process. Lack of Canadian work experience, non-transferability of foreign credentials, and a lack of official language skills were the most frequently cited impediments to employment.5

1 Toronto City Planning, Research & Information. (2007). Toronto Backgrounder. Retrieved online from http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/pdf/2006_lang_imm_citizenship_mobility_backgrounder.pdf 2 Alboim, Naomi and Elizabeth McIsaac. 2007. “Making the Choices: Ottawa’s Role in Immigrant Employment”. IRPP Choices 13(3). Page 3. 3 Toronto City Planning, Research & Information. (2007). Toronto Backgrounder. Retrieved online from http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/pdf/2006_lang_imm_citizenship_mobility_backgrounder.pdf 4 Ibid. 5 Canadian Labour and Business Centre. Labour Market Integration: Issues and Challenges for New Immigrants. Accessed at http://www.clbc.ca/files/Reports/IHB_section_c.pdf  Although immigrants are twice as likely as the Canadian-born to hold a university degree, they often fare much worse on the job market. In fact, it has been shown that the gap in wages between immigrants and the Canadian- born appears to be highest among university graduates.6

 Immigrants are significantly more unemployed and under-employed than the Canadian-born. In October 2010, the unemployment rate for Canadian-born in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area was 5.3%, compared to 10.7% for all immigrants. While immigrants have had higher unemployment rates than Canadian-born in the past, the gap has widened since the recession.7

 Since the 1980s, the proportion of recent immigrants in low-income has increased markedly, despite rising levels of educational attainment among this group. In the Greater Toronto Area, approximately one-third of recent immigrants are in a low-income situation - this proportion is more than twice as large as that of Canadian-born individuals.8

THE IMPORTANCE OF IMMIGRANT LABOUR MARKET INTEGRATION IN TORONTO

 Immigrants are valuable to the GTA’s ability to compete on domestic and international levels. Immigrants in the GTA and speak over 100 different languages and dialects and represent more than 200 different ethnic groups.9

 Generally, immigrants to Canada are between the ages of 25 and 44 and, thus, of an age where they could participate in the labour force and contribute to the economy.10

 It is common for immigrants to be well-educated and highly-skilled. According to Statistics Canada (2006), 51% of recent immigrants have a University degree, compared with only 19% of the overall Canadian population.11

 Immigration and immigrant labour market integration will be crucial in replacing the retiring work force and contributing to the local economy. According to RBC Financial’s report The Diversity Advantage: A Case for Canada’s 21st Century Economy by 2012, immigration will account for all of the net increase in the labour force and, by the latter part of the 2010-2020 decade, the size of the labour force will stop growing even with current levels of immigration.

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 Rapid integration of recent immigrants into the labour market is especially important for municipalities that have a large proportion of recent immigrants. A mismatch between numbers of new immigrants and immigrant

6 Toronto Immigrant Employment Data Initiative. TIEDI Analytical Report 8: Labour outcomes of university-educated immigrants. Retrieved online from http://www.yorku.ca/tiedi/pubreports.html 7 Toronto Immigrant Employment Data Initiative. TIEDI Labour Force Update: Toronto CMA (retrieved online from http://www.yorku.ca/tiedi/lfstoronto.html#unem 8 Citizenship and Immigration Canada. 2005. “Recent Immigrants in Metropolitan Areas: Toronto. A Comparative Profile Based on the 2001 Census”. Ottawa: Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Page xix. 9 Invest Toronto website. Retrieved online from http://www.investtoronto.ca/Quality-of-Life/Living-in-Toronto/Diversity.aspx 10 Just the Facts about your Community: Diversity of Residents Living in York Region. Retrieved online from www.york.ca/yrcsd 11 Statistics Canada. Educational Portrait of Canada, Census 2006. Ottawa, Statistics Canada, 2008, as cited by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. employment rates can have a significant impact on communities in terms of economic growth, quality of life and costs of social assistance.12

 “Immigration has contributed to Canada’s growth as a nation and will play a key role in building the Canada of tomorrow, addressing future labour market and demographic needs, and supporting the country’s international role and geopolitical presence. Looking to the future, more successful and well-integrated newcomers in all parts of Canada are key to nation building and to our economic prosperity.”13

12 The Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration (2005), as cited by The Regional Municipality of York. (2006). Community Snapshots: Recent Immigrants Living in York Region. Newmarket, Ontario, p 14. 13 Ibid.