The pandemic has weakened the economy and complicated access to the job market, including for immigrants, recalls a Statistics Canada study. And those who became permanent in 2019 paid the price: a year later, in 2020, their median entry salary was lower than that of their counterparts admitted over the last 10 years, as well as that of people who arrived right after them, during the pandemic.
“ [Les immigrants devenus permanents en 2019] experienced a decline in their reported median entry salary one year after admission, unlike previously admitted immigrants, whose median salary increased steadily over the past 10 years,” argues the document published by the agency federal.
This only appears to have been a pandemic hiatus, however, since immigrants who became permanent in 2020 had higher wages a year later, in 2021. The latter then declared annual income of $37,700 — an increase of 21.6% compared to the median entry salary of the 2019 cohort one year after their admission, i.e. $31,000.
“There has been a drop in economic activity during the pandemic, and that may explain why immigrants have been affected. But it was temporary. In the long term, it is a small episode which will not have lasted very long,” notes Gilles Grenier, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Ottawa. According to him, we must especially take into account “long-term trends”, such as the labor shortage. It is these trends that undoubtedly explain the recovery in the salaries of immigrants who became permanent in 2020. “The population is aging, we expected it. More people are retired and fewer people are entering the workforce than leaving it. »
Brahim Boudarbat, professor at the School of Industrial Relations at the University of Montreal and researcher at CIRANO, agrees. He recalls that the post-pandemic period, which begins in 2021, has been more favorable. “There is a labor shortage that has become felt, and employers have started paying more [leurs employés] », he notes.
More experience, better integration
According to the study, one of the factors that could explain why the salary is better after one year for immigrants who became permanent in 2020, compared to the previous cohort, is that there were very few immigrants who are entered Canada during the pandemic period, immigration having been temporarily suspended due to COVID-19. According to tax filings, the cohort admitted in 2020 “was the smallest in 10 years due to pandemic-related border restrictions,” the federal study reads.
But this higher median salary would also be due to the fact that the few immigrants who were admitted were already temporarily in the territory; they were therefore already integrated into the labor market or into a study program. “For someone who was studying or working in Canada as a temporary resident, their chances of success and having a better salary as a permanent immigrant are much better than for an immigrant who applies for permanent residence from abroad », observes Professor Grenier. Statistics Canada documented this phenomenon in another study published in March 2022.
Professor Boudarbat, for his part, believes that a form of selection of the profiles of immigrants who applied for Express Entry was carried out. “Probably we chose the best profiles, those who had the highest number of points and that’s what affects salaries [plus élevés]. »
He also highlights an important element of the study in his eyes: immigrant women remain less well paid than men. “A gap of 44.6% in the median annual salary is problematic,” he concludes based on his own calculation. “ [C’est] huge, and [cela] reflects a blatant underutilization of the potential of immigrant women while Canada and Quebec advocate equal opportunities and greater economic empowerment for women. »
Little relevant comparisons
According to him, the study would have been much more relevant if it had compared the cohorts of immigrants and non-immigrants. “Has the trend been favorable for everyone or, on the contrary, have immigrants benefited less? »
Comparing two cohorts which follow one another but which experienced two different contexts, i.e. 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, does not hold water either. “It would have been better to compare new immigrant arrivals at the time of their arrival [au Canada], and not at the time of their admission, with other non-immigrant newcomers. This would have allowed us to see how employers welcome each other. »
Moreover, for Professor Boudarbat, comparing two cohorts of immigrants just one year after they became permanent is not representative. “From the moment you become permanent, there is a certain delay before integration begins in the job market. Often, we will take time to get the children settled into school, some will learn the language or return to their country of origin to settle matters… It is therefore more interesting to observe the data over the long term. »