The impact of economic selection policy on labour market outcomes for degree-qualified migrants in Canada and Australia

According to a recent paper, Census data confirmed the significance of migration The human capital model…has dominated to the country’s population growth and economic Canada’s selection of skilled migrants — endorsed in its most recent migration review development in a context where “[i]mmigration and (2002), and standing in sharp contrast to an unprecedented economic boom in Alberta fuelled a Aus [...] Thus [any] superior labour migrants in 10 professional fields — allowing defi- force performance of migrants to Australia…cannot nition of the scale of inflows of skilled migrants to be explained simply in terms of economic perform- Canada and Australia within the economic and ance” (2004, 10). [...] The credential level of than females (41 percent of males held degrees, com- these intakes surpassed that of migrants to Australia, pared to 33 percent of females); but both genders where 26 percent of 1996-2001 arrivals held degrees, exceeded the credential norm of the Canadian-born (15 compared to 17 percent of pre-1991 migrants and 24 percent of Canadian-born males held degrees, compared percen [...] Professionals from Hong Kong, Malaysia and and with 2 of the top-ranked 4 institutions located Singapore, for example, had reasonable outcomes: in in Hong Kong), 9 in South Korea, 7 in Israel, 5 in Canada, they were far more likely to secure work in New Zealand, 5 in Taiwan, 2 in Singapore and 2 in their own professions than similarly qualified Indian India (neither ranked in the top 300) arrivals [...] In terms of outcomes by birthplace, a range overall, with 87 percent of South African migrants work- of recently arrived degree-qualified migrants had per- ing, compared to 85 percent of the Canadian-born, and a formed better in Canada than in Australia.