French Language Skills : Immigration

Skilled Immigrants Dept: While federal and provincial governments have taken steps to improve labour market outcomes, more is needed. Research shows there are many factors at play, but two stand out: language ability and age at arrival, according to Globe And Mail. The Canadian “points” system currently sets the same language requirements for all immigrants. But there’s some evidence that language skills are especially important in facilitating the portability of preimmigration human capital for high-skilled immigrants. Unfortunately, some appear not to have the language skills necessary to fully employ their occupational/educational skills in the Canadian labour market. Putting increased emphasis on language ability at selection for the highly skilled seems to make sense if a “fast start” is desired. Simultaneously, providing settlement resources to allow more extensive language training would be a good investment and most of the difference appears to be driven by declining labour market outcomes for subsequent cohorts of new arrivals. Immigrants who landed in the late 1970s earned at entry roughly 15 per cent less than comparable Canadians. Since then, the earnings gap has increased significantly and is now in the range of 35 per cent to 40 per cent. The gap narrows as time spent in Canada increases, but it’s not clear that the average recent immigrant will catch up in a reasonable working lifetime. It’s well understood that English- or French-language skills are important for labour market as well as social integration for all immigrants, but they’re especially important for the skilled workers we seek to attract. As reported in the news.
@t labour market outcomes, canadian labour market