MY TAKE
NUMBERS DON’T LIE: DESIS AMONG TOP EARNERS IN CANADA
Chinese and South Asian men and women were at least twice as likely as others to have a bachelor’s degree in a STEM field. Those are the fields well-paying jobs are likely to see growth in. Image credit: SANKET MISHRA on Pexels.
By SHAGORIKA EASWAR
In an article in the Financial Post, Naimul Karim shared Statistics Canada findings that pointed to Canadian-born South Asians and Chinese being among top earners in the country.
They also earn more on average than others in the long run.
This flies in the face of incendiary reports of South Asians being a net drain on the country’s resources in many social media posts, and also in the face of doom-and-gloom reports in Indian media of South Asians in Canada suffering in large numbers.
Which is the true face of the community?
Statistics Canada looked at the earnings of about 925,000 Canadian-born individuals aged 25 to 34 over a period of 20 years by analysing their tax records and 1996 and 2001 censuses.
What emerged from the study was that “people from these two ethnic groups are more likely to have higher education levels with degrees in science, mathematics, engineering and technology (STEM), live in more expensive cities such as Toronto or Vancouver, work in high-wage industries and experience fewer layoffs compared to white people,” wrote Karim.
Karim adds that “One of the more ‘striking’ differences the report noted is the difference in education levels between various groups. At least 50 per cent of the Chinese men and women analysed had a bachelor’s degree or higher education, with slightly lower shares observed among South Asian men and women...Chinese and South Asian men and women were at least twice as likely as others to have a bachelor’s degree in a STEM field.”
Which makes complete sense – those are the fields well-paying jobs are likely to see growth in. It also ties in with recommendations made by the Fraser Institute that the Federal government should prioritize immigrants with STEM qualifications and language skills to help increase living standards for Canadians.
The Institute is an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
“The primary focus of sensible immigration policy should be to attract newcomers who will help increase the living standards of people already living in Canada,” said Jock Finlayson, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and co-author of Insights To Guide Immigration Policy.
According to the essay, highly-educated and/or skilled immigrants – particularly those trained in STEM-related subjects – will help increase the productivity and per-person GDP (an indicator of living standards and incomes) of existing residents.
And these types of immigrants contribute more to government revenue (via taxes) than they receive in government services and income transfers (e.g. employment insurance).
Governments in Canada should also improve the business environment for entrepreneurship, innovation and growth of technology-intensive industries and occupations, to reap more benefits from high-skilled immigrants.
I recall a conversation from our early years in Canada. We were at a friend’s place for dinner and met another couple who had recently arrived from India. Both were skilled professionals, with many years of experience back home. Both were struggling to find meaningful employment in Canada. He was an engineer and needed to get his PEng. certification. She was a gynaecologist, and also needed to pass certain exams to practise in Canada.
The shine of being in a new country was beginning to wear off already for the couple. “Canada wants our children, not us,” he said with a grim smile.
After the initial hardships they faced, they both cleared the certification exams and their son is now an engineer and daughter is a chartered accountant.
Which brings me to the journeys of many of the Grant’s Desi Achievers we feature every month.
The ones who find success relatively early in their journey in Canada are either entrepreneurs or those with a high degree of qualifications in STEM. The others were born and raised in Canada, offspring of skilled immigrants who came to Canada a generation ago. They struggled, paid their dues, and made sure their children had the advantage higher education provides.
Those children faced their own hurdles, including the pressures of what was expected from the “ideal minority” – a community that succeeds, that couldn’t have faced racism. Those weren’t minor challenges, but educated immigrant parents had equipped them to deal with them.
And that has made all the difference.
Grant’s Desi Achiever Rupa Bannerjee is Canada Research Chair in Economic Inclusion, Employment and Entrepreneurship of Canada’s Immigrants and Associate Professor of Human Resource Management and Organizational Behaviour at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). Her mandate is to focus on evidence-based, research-backed insights into how immigrants are doing in the Canadian labour market and her primary research interest lies in the employment integration of new immigrants to Canada.
In an interview with Desi News she had said, “It’s been widely discussed that the new policies can actually dilute the skills in the labour market. The highly-skilled tend to be flexible, if they can’t find employment in their particular field, they can move to another related one.
“A truck driver on the other hand, may not be able to pivot because his skills are less applicable elsewhere. But if you want restaurant workers then you have to bring in those with experience in the hospitality industry instead of having a surgeon in the kitchen... Also, among the lower-skilled immigrants, the expectation is that their kids will do better, they are looking for inter-generational mobility, unlike the highly-skilled who want intra-generational success.”
The StatsCan figures just underscore what we knew anecdotally – we are a community of high-achievers. One that has faced many challenges, and continues to face many, but one that emerges with success stories that make the rest of us proud.