Toward Improving Canada's Skilled Immigration Policy: An Evaluation Approach

Economic Growth and innovation, Canada, immigration, skilled immigration, point system

Immigrant Earnings Distributions and Earnings Mobility in Canada: Evidence for the 1982 Landing Cohort from IMDB Micro Data

This paper provides preliminary results from the IMDB panel database on the earnings distribution and earnings mobility of Canadian immigrants over their first post-landing decade in Canada. In this study we examine only the 1982 landing cohort of immigrants and follow them through to 1992. We examine earnings outcomes by four immigrant admission categories (independent economic immigrants, family class immigrants, and refugees) and separately for men and women. We find that there was indeed a substantial increase in the real earnings of 1982 immigrants over their first ten post-landing years in Canada. Annual earnings were initially highest for independent economic immigrants (all of whom are principal applicants) and lowest for refugees. But the growth rate of earnings was highest among refugees, so that by the tenth post-landing year refugees had the second-highest annual earnings levels after independent economic immigrants. Earnings inequality among immigrants in the 1982 landing cohort changed over the ensuing decade in a manner consistent with onward migration beyond Canada from the top end of the immigrant earnings distribution. In fact, sample attrition in the IMDB database was greatest among independent economic immigrants, followed by refugees. Earnings mobility was substantially greater for immigrants than for earners as a whole in the Canadian labour market, and declined with years since landing for both male and female immigrants. Earnings mobility was also greater among immigrant women than among immigrant men. The results indicate that the point system is effective in admitting higher-earning immigrants who succeed in moving ahead in the Canadian labour market, but suggest that onward (or through) migration among the most skilled immigrant workers may be a policy concern.Immigrant Earnings, Earnings Mobility of Immigrants, Canadian Immigrant Earnings

Long-Run Inequality and Annual Instability of Men's and Women's Earnings in Canada

earnings inequality, earnings instability, long-run inequality

Courtesy in Charles Williams\u27 \u3ci\u3eThe Greater Trumps\u3c/i\u3e

Describes the tradition of courtesy in medieval court and monastic communities. Refers to these traditions and Williams’s writings to define courtesy as he saw it. Notes the different levels of courtesy as defined by Williams

Economic Outcomes and Economic Impacts of Immigrants to Canada

Bio: Charles Beach is a Professor of Economics at Queen\u27s University where he has taught since 1972. He was an Editor of Canadian Public Policy/Analyse de politiques (1995-02) and Director of the John Deutsch Institute (2001-09). He was a co-founder of the Canadian Econometric Study Group, Canadian Employment Research Forum, and Chair of the Data Liberation Initiative at Statistics Canada. He has published 15 books and a large number of research and policy papers. His current research interests are on Canadian immigration policy and experience, and on labour market and retirement policy

Immigrant Earnings Differences Across Admission Categories and Landing Cohorts in Canada

This study uses longitudinal IMDB micro data to document the annual earnings outcomes of Canadian immigrants in four major admission categories (skill-assessed independent economic principal applicants, accompanying economic immigrants, family class immigrants, and refugees) and three annual landing cohorts (those for the years 1982, 1988, and 1994) over the first ten years following their landing in Canada as permanent residents. The findings provide a ten-year earnings signature for the four broad immigrant admission categories in Canada. The study’s first major finding is that skill-assessed economic immigrants had consistently and substantially the highest annual earnings levels among the four admission categories for both male and female immigrants in all three landing cohorts. Family class immigrants or refugees generally had the lowest earnings levels. An important related finding is that refugees exhibited substantially the highest earnings growth rates for both male and female immigrants in all three landing cohorts, while independent economic or family class immigrants generally had the lowest earnings growth rates over their first post-landing decade in Canada. The study’s second major finding is that economic recessions appear to have had clearly discernible negative effects on immigrants’ earnings levels and growth rates; moreover, these adverse effects were much more pronounced for male immigrants than for female immigrants.Immigrant earnings, admission categories, Canadian immigrants

Improving Canada's Immigration Policy

As labour markets change, the question arises whether Canada’s immigration policy – and our “point system” in particular – is doing a good job of identifying potential immigrants who will fare well on arrival in Canada.economic growth and innovation, immigration point system, Canadian immigration policy

Impacts of the Point System and Immigration Policy Levers on Skill Characteristics of Canadian Immigrants

This paper examines how changes in immigration policy levers actually affect the skill characteristics of immigrant arrivals using a unique Canadian immigrant landings database. We first review the Canadian experience with a point system as part of its immigrant policy. Section III of the paper describes some overall patterns of immigrant arrivals since 1980. Section IV identifies some relevant hypotheses on the possible effects on immigrant skill characteristics of the total immigration rate, the point system weights and immigrant class weights. The "skill" admissions examined are level of education, age, and fluency in either English or French. Regressions are then used to test the hypotheses from Canadian landings data. It is found that (i) the larger the inflow rate of immigrants the lower the average skill level of the arrivals; (ii) increasing the proportion of skill-evaluated immigrants raises average skill levels; (iii) increasing point system weights on a specific skill dimension indeed has the intended effect of raising average skill levels in this dimension among arriving principal applicants; and (iv) increasing the proportion of skill-evaluated immigrants appears to have the strongest effects among the immigration policy levers.immigration policy, points system, Canadian immigration

Review of War of the Fantasy Worlds: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein on Art and Imagination

Charles Franklyn Beach: Review of Martha C. Sammons, War of the Fantasy Worlds: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien on Art and Imagination (Santa Barbara, 2010). xv + 237 pages. $44.95. ISBN 9780313362828

Review of Inside The Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’: A Guide to Exploring the Journey Beyond Narnia

Review of Devin Brown, Inside The Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’: A Guide to Exploring the Journey Beyond Narnia (Grand Rapids, 2010). 249 pages. $12.99. ISBN: 9780801071652