Immigrants in Canada boost innovation
Canada, 25th October: Immigrants in Canada are giving a big boost to innovation in the country and playing a crucial role in improving the global competitiveness of Canada.
This has been revealed by the findings of a latest report by CBC (Conference Board of Canada) titled ‘Immigrants as Investors: Boosting Canada’s Global Competitiveness’.
The report tested the view that immigrants tend to be highly innovative and found that immigrants in Canada were, indeed, associated with higher innovation in Canada at all levels including individual, national, organization and global.
The findings of the report maintain that although the percentage of immigrants comprise just one-fifth of Canada’s total population, but still, the percentage of immigrants in Canada Research Chairs is 35 percent.
It further suggested that it’s the immigrants in Canada that won higher number of highly prestigious performing arts and literary awards including the Governor-General’s Performing Arts Awards and the Giller Prize.
And immigration significantly affects and improves trade relations of Canada with the nations of immigrants’ origin. An increase of one-percentage-point increase in the number of immigrants results in 0.21 percent increase in the value of imports in Canada and also results in 0.11 percent increase in the value of exports.
No wonder, countries regarded to be major sources of immigration to Canada make greater foreign direct investment into the nation than other nations, the report asserts.
Although, there might be a few shortcomings of multiculturalism, there is no denying the fact that immigrants in Canada are playing a significant role in the making worthy contributions to the nation’s society.
And despite such important contributions by immigrants in Canada, they continue to encounter numerous obstacles in the way of their successful integration in Canada.
Some of the problems faced by immigrants in Canada include delays in getting recognition of their foreign credentials, inadequate opportunities for newcomers in making use of their skills, and failure of employers in Canada to use foreign language skills of immigrants.
The report gives a piece of advice to the employers in Canada asking them to hire immigrants at all organizational levels and invite them to share their valued suggestions.
It also asserts on improving the living conditions of all Canadians including immigrants