Quebec is welcoming more and more immigrants and successfully integrating them into the job market, where wages and working conditions for newcomers have improved considerably over the past 10 years, according to a study by the Institut du Québec.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
While the Quebec government says it wants to welcome fewer immigrants to take care of them, the study observes that newcomers are more and more numerous and that they integrate well into the labor market.
The gap between the salary of immigrants and that of all workers has decreased by 40%, 10 years ago, to 1.3%, underlines the portrait of the Institut du Québec signed by Daye Diallo, Mia Homsy and Simon Savard.
The unemployment rate for immigrants fell during the same period, from 12.7% to 5.7%, and the employment rate for newcomers caught up with and even exceeded that of Ontario.
“The integration of immigrants into the Quebec labor market is a very positive element,” underlines the president of the Institute, Mia Homsy. As for the employment rate of 25-54 year olds, which rose from 69.9% to 81.9% in 10 years, that is quite telling. »
The researchers note that Quebec makes massive use of temporary labor to meet the needs of businesses, even if many of them feel that the number is not enough.
The number of temporary immigrants exploded in Quebec between 2016 and 2019. It rose from 12,671 to 61,668 and they represented 64% of all international immigrants in 2019, compared to an average of 9% between 2012 and 2016.
This is not ideal, underlines Mia Homsy. “Temporary immigrants sometimes face social and economic difficulties that natives and landed immigrants do not face, such as work permits linked to an abusive or unfair employer and less favorable working conditions,” the study lists.
The integration of immigrants in Quebec, however, is experiencing major failures in terms of the time required to obtain permanent residence, which are the highest in Canada, and regionalization, which is a failure, say the researchers.
An express route to the regions
Despite all efforts to attract immigrants to the regions, 85% of newcomers settle in Montreal. In the current context of the scarcity of labour, the economy of the regions is mortgaged by this imbalance, points out the study.
The researchers propose increasing the immigration thresholds for 10,000 people who would be offered a fast track to obtaining permanent residence if they settle in the regions.
Reduce delays
Quebec must obtain more powers from Ottawa for the verification of immigration files in order to reduce the delays which are stretching out in an unacceptable way on the federal side, suggests the Institut du Québec.
For the same purpose, he proposes abolishing the obligation to accumulate between 12 and 18 months of experience, or 24 months of work in the case of temporary immigrants, before being able to apply for permanent residence.