Well, it really is Immigration Canada that FUBARed this one. The point system they have means that only the best and the brightest get into Canada. If you are a computer programmer, come on in. If you are a doctor, come on in. If you are an engineer, come on in. Oh, and by the way, there is no tech boom and the doctors and engineers can't get certified. So into the taxi cabs for you.
There desperately needs a better way to get medical certification. I was in a French class with a woman who was a doctor in India for 10 years. She really knew her stuff. However, to become a doctor she'd have to go back to school for 4+ years. A single mother with a family to raise, she couldn't afford to go back to school to learn stuff she already knew. Frustrated, she became a lab technician at Health Canada. But it's not like we don't have a glut of doctors, eh?
The other issue is that we are bringing in TOO MANY skilled immigrants into sectors that do not require them. I remember hearing the story of a girl that came to Canada from China to work for Nortel. They promised her that they would pay for her English lessons and subsidized housing as long as she worked for them, so she spent her life savings and her parents life savings to move to Canada. She was there three weeks before Nortel laid her off. She had no money, no grasp of the language and no way home.
What kind of workers does Canada need? Manual labourers, restaurant workers, and people to stock shelves in stores.... which is mostly what is pouring across America's southern border. Maybe we can trade some Java programmers for a few illegals? Seriously - we have a glut of well educated people driving taxis, and they have a glut of unskilled labour entering their country.
|