Canadian work experience and education boosts immigrant earning potential; Study
Statistics Canada reports immigrants who receive permanent
residence after having worked and studied in Canada earn more off the bat
Prior Canadian work
experience makes a big difference to the entry-level wages that new immigrants
earn, a Statistics Canada study shows.
The report looking at outcomes
for permanent residents who were admitted to Canada in 2016 found that those
with prior work experience in Canada had the highest median entry wages of
those studied after one year.
New permanent residents
who had both worked and studied in Canada had a median entry wage of $39,800
one year after arrival, while those who had been work permit holders only had a
median income of $38,100.
“These wages are
comparable with those of the entire Canadian population,” Statistics Canada
says.
The median entry wage for
the 2016 cohort as a whole was $25,900 in 2017, which the study said was “the
highest recorded among immigrants admitted since 1981.”
This outcome, however,
fell well short of the Canadian population’s median wage of $36,100 in 2017.
More Canadian
work experience, more earnings
Statistics Canada said the
observed growth in entry-level wages could be partly explained by the fact an
increasing number of non-permanent resident permit holders with Canadian work
experience are transitioning to permanent residence.
“From the 2007 admission
year to the 2016 admission year, the number of immigrant tax filers one year
after arrival who had work experience in Canada increased by 166% while the
number of immigrants without work experience rose 2%,” the study notes.
Immigrants’ wages
generally increase with the number of years since getting permanent residence.
Looking back at immigrants who were admitted to Canada in 2007, their median
wage one year after arrival was $20,400. By 2017, the median wage of the same
cohort reached $33,500, an increase of 64 per cent.
A closer look at who saw
the most gains in that 10-year span reveals that once again, work permit and
study permit holders had the highest median wage, which was up 81 per cent to
$63,800 in 2017.
“Their wage exceeded that
of immigrants who held only a work permit (up 36 per cent to $48,100) and that
of Canadians as a whole,” Statistics Canada said.
Pre-admission work
experience also plays a role in retention. The study says 90 per cent of Economic-Class
immigrants who were admitted to Canada in 2012 were still in the same province
five years later.
Those without
pre-admission Canadian work experience had a retention rate of 81 per cent.
Overall, 86 per cent of
immigrants who were admitted in 2012 filed a 2017 tax return in the same
province where they first settled as permanent residents.
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