Posted on: 09-01-05 06:42:31
When Saravana Rajan started his search for a new home in Canada four years ago, the native of Madurai, India put together a list of things he wanted for his family — a less stressful environment, a low cost of living and a friendly, close-knit community.
He also needed to find a place where his qualifications and professional experience as a mechanical engineer would count. And unlike many new immigrants scrambling for work, he found one.
"I got three job offers in 20 days," says Rajan, 30.
Rajan and his wife, Samoon Arjunan, a software developer, are among the 130,000 new immigrants who come from 180 countries to settle in Ontario each year. But unlike the majority who move to the highly competitive area of Greater Toronto, they headed for the greener pastures of Waterloo, a booming high-tech hub with big-city convenience and small-town appeal.
"There are some really cool high-tech companies in the Kitchener-Waterloo area," says Rajan, who has been working for the same Waterloo medical informatics company since his arrival. "The living environment is really superior compared to the big cities and the place where I came from."
Immigration has always been a central feature of the urban landscape. The increasing concentration of immigrants in the "Big Three," as Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal are known to demographers, is unprecedented. Greater Toronto is home to 43 per cent of all recent immigrants to Canada, followed by Vancouver (18 per cent) and Montreal (12 per cent).
The sheer number of new immigrants heading for big cities makes competition for employment and affordable housing fierce. But newcomers who settle outside of the Big Three often find a very different picture.
A recent University of Guelph study found recent immigrants to British Columbia who settle in smaller communities, like Victoria, Nanaimo or Prince George, earn more than those in Greater Vancouver. In Victoria, for example, 80 per cent of new male immigrants were working, compared to 64 per cent in Greater Vancouver. Workers living outside the urban centre also averaged salaries well above $22,000 a year, while their city counterparts averaged only $17,350.
"Jobs are available in smaller communities, but we need to link immigrants to those jobs," says geography professor Harald Bauder, who conducted the study. "We need some conscious recruitment effort to target the kind of immigrants that we need in our local communities."
It is likely going to be an uphill battle.
Last year, Immigration Minister Judy Sgro announced the government was abandoning a federal plan that would have obliged new immigrants to settle in smaller remote communities to help disperse newcomers across the country and away from the crowded gateway cities. But, "we're looking at the whole issue of a regionalization strategy and how we can find ways of populating some of our other really great parts of the country that people don't know about," Sgro told reporters at the time.
Sgro and her Ontario counterpart Marie Bountrogianni, along with municipal leaders, have been meeting in the past year to negotiate the province's first-ever immigration agreement. The deal is the first to involve municipalities, which have delivered many settlement programs, but have not had a say in immigration policy.
The issue of settlement funding is expected to be front and centre at the talks, which are expected to wrap with a deal in the spring. All provinces and territories except Ontario have had agreements with the federal government in immigration settlement funding and service delivery. The province didn't feel it needed one because Ontario, which has always been a magnet to newcomers anyways, has the infrastructure to deliver those programs on its own.
Currently, Ontario receives only $864 per immigrant arrival, as compared to Quebec's $3,252 and the national average of $1,200. When the Conservatives took over the provincial government in 1995, they cut immigration and settlement services by 20 per cent.
While the influx of newcomers has placed enormous pressure on housing, health, education, transportation and social services, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal remain the envy of their small-town counterparts because of the economic boost these new immigrants provide.
The very survival of many smaller communities depends on attracting more newcomers.
"When somebody is about going to Canada, they research Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. What's Kitchener, Waterloo or Goderich? There isn't any information about those places," says Marlene Kramer, executive director of the Waterloo-based New Canadian Employment Service, whose mandate is to help newcomers with skills find employers who need them.
"Most people want to work for big companies in big cities, but what really matters is they have to be where their skills are needed. What's the point to have an oil engineer landing in Toronto when the (related) jobs are all over in Alberta?"
It is not always an easy proposition, says Ratna Omidvar, executive director of the Maytree Foundation, which funds immigration research in Canada. Support for settlement programs in small towns can be hard to find.
"The smaller communities have different problems in attracting and retaining immigrants, and they need different solutions," Omidvar says.
"We need regional economic development plans. We need to bring all stakeholders to the table. It is a situation where everybody has to step up to the plate. You have to invest in immigration and settlement if you are serious about it."
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Great post.
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Quote:
Orginally posted by rajcanada
"Most people want to work for big companies in big cities, but what really matters is they have to be where their skills are needed. What's the point to have an oil engineer landing in Toronto when the (related) jobs are all over in Alberta?"
This article was already copy pasted in some other thread too. I would like to comment on this line becauas it seems to be the conclusion for the immigrant behavior. You will find big companies located in small towns and not vice versa. Normaly expansions and new peojects of big names are in small towns.
People land in toronto to find job anywhere in Canada. Why it is so difficult for companies else where in Canada to understand that a person who flew in from thousand of miles will also fly couple of more km for a decent job. If I apply to a job in Vancour or Montreal or Waterloo, why company can not consider my application.
This figure juglary is to confuse and nothing else in my opinion.
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Try overtaking child's imagination
What does this sentence mean?
Quote:
Orginally posted by jago_desi
You will find big companies located in small towns and not vice versa.
I agree that not many employers would consider an "outstation" candidate.
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Quote:
Orginally posted by rajcanada
What does this sentence mean?
Quote:
Orginally posted by jago_desi
You will find big companies located in small towns and not vice versa.
I agree that not many employers would consider an "outstation" candidate.
Big companies are present in small towns because of the tax benefits etc from the municipal or provincial govt. The companies located in big towns are shutting down or shifting major chunk of business to small towns now days. So saying that people come looking for a job in Toronto is wrong. Any professional already worked for big names else where in world know it very well that he / she has to move out. Because Toronto is a eastablished centre for Canada, people land here to find necessary start-up of their new life. What is wrong in that. Why companies cannot call a person for interview anywhere else in Canada. If in India, my residence is in Chennai and a company located in Punjab for which I have applied will fly me in for the interview. Why it is so difficult for Canadian companies to understand this part.
If I have to move to Waterloo to get a job there, it means that Candian Comapnies want to limit my freedom and scope.
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Try overtaking child's imagination
I share Jago_desi's view.
I have applied to all of Canada except the North West and Yukon Teriitores.
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I once made a mistake, but I was wrong about it.
Good link Raj.
I personally know of a few people who moved to Alberta/Sask./NS and found better jobs after trying here in Toronto first. That does not mean these provinces guarantee better jobs however its not a big surprise that GTA is becoming an increasingly difficult market with the hige rate of immigrant influx.
I think rather than giving an armchair speech on what Canadian companies should and should not do, I would focus on what Canadian companies are doing.
If I had exhausted all my options in Toronto, I would definately give something like Alberta a decent shot. Matter of fact, my first job in Canada was in Waterloo even though it meant I had to move from TO.
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