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Gain offsets brain drain in Canada
Ben Antao
People in India must wonder why Canada that attracts so many highly
educated and skilled immigrants from the world over is experiencing a
reverse brain drain to the U.S. The short answer is that Canada is a
free country and its citizens are free to choose where they wish to work
and live. And this applies to individual immigrants as well as to
business corporations.
It’s a curiosity I’ve been wrestling with for nearly 40 years. As a
naturalized Canadian myself, I have tried to understand why Canadians
would want to cross the border to the south. However, before giving you
my perspective on this so-called brain drain, allow me to say up front
that for every Canadian professional who heads south, we get four
immigrants of equal value. Not a bad deal, eh!
The brain drain to the U.S. involves primarily professionals like
doctors, nurses, and IT engineers. The rationale for this emigration
dwells in the complexity of human ambition and motivation. Let’s look at
the numbers. The average annual number of emigrants to the U.S. over the
past five years has been 25,000, of whom only 1,000 have been doctors
and nurses. Still, Canada can’t afford to lose that many doctors and
nurses to Uncle Sam when both the federal and provincial governments
have funded their education and training from our taxes.
For example, in Ontario, the largest province with 12 million people out
of the total Canadian population of 33 million, there is a shortage of
both doctors and nurses. The province has 27,000 doctors but needs at
least 2,300 more; there are 78,000 registered nurses, but the province
needs 8,000 more to deliver the publicly funded universal health care
adequately, based on a ratio of one doctor and eight nurses for 1200
people. This ratio, though, is good for only the city of Toronto; remote
areas in the province are lucky to have one doctor for 5,000 people,
which leaves even smaller communities without the services of a
physician.
Every year a hue and cry is raised over the loss of doctors and nurses
to the U.S., especially those under 40 years of age. Why do these
professionals choose to go to America, mainly in the US south?
The key motivation is MONEY. These emigrants say their after-tax incomes
are a lot higher there than what they would make in Canada. The family
doctor in Ontario makes about $160,000 a year on average (9 years
post-secondary education) and the registered nurse about $42,000 a year
with four years of university training. Medical specialists make much
more than that. However, about 48% of this income goes towards federal
and provincial taxes at the top marginal rate. Moreover, the cost of
living in the province is also higher compared to that of US cities,
except for New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
It’s of interest to note that what Canadians earn for the first six
months of the year goes to the government in the form of taxes. From the
first of July, Canada’s birthday, they get to keep what they earn. Add
to this the payment of municipal, education, and sales taxes. One
chartered accountant has calculated that 64% of what a Canadian earns
goes to the government to maintain the various services, such as health
care, education, and infrastructure (roads, mass transit, garbage
disposal). So, when visitors come to Toronto and marvel at the quality
of life here, guess who pays for it.
In the U.S., however, the cost of living is lower than in Canada mainly
because of its population base of 300 million. Still, health insurance
costs are higher there but these young professionals don’t mind paying
these, considering the overall benefits of a warmer climate in the
south, and the opportunities to make more money in the free market
economy.
Only the Ontario-trained teachers are not emigrating because the
salaries in the U.S. can’t compete with those paid in Ontario, where
today a certified teacher (4 years post-secondary education) starts at
$42,000 a year, which with annual increments grows to $80,000 after 10
years, coupled with a generous pension plan. Nurses and doctors also
have generous pension plans in Ontario.
Another factor contributing to the growth of emigration is the free
trade agreement between Canada and the United States signed in 1990.
This has obviously increased the flow of Canadians working in the U.S.
Then there are the Canadian seniors called the snow birds that migrate
to the U.S., mainly Florida, in the winter but return home before 182
days are up to keep their health care privileges in order. They are
enjoying the best of both worlds, Canadian-style.
Nevertheless, the Canadian government is concerned about this brain
drain and only recently has begun to take steps to do something about
it. As mentioned earlier, for every professional we lose to the U.S., we
gain four highly qualified and skilled immigrants each year from the
pool of 250,000 annual immigrants. But over the past decade or so, the
problem has been that many of these professionals were unable to get
their education and experience abroad certified and accredited in
Ontario to be able to practice here. The joke has been that immigrants
with PhDs are driving taxis to make a living.
Now the Ontario government and the federal government have initiated
programs to re-evaluate the qualifications of skilled immigrants, like
doctors, nurses and engineers, and speed up the accreditation process in
an effort to facilitate their integration in the Canadian system. Their
re-training and re-certification to conform to Canadian standards has
full support of the government agencies and it looks as if finally the
brain drain to the U.S. will be more than offset by the brain gain.
To be fair, though, it needs to be said that in the past many of these
so-called skilled immigrants with paper qualifications failed to make
the grade when put to the test. Their degrees were reportedly fraudulent
or substandard or simply purchased with money. There was the case of one
‘professor’ in London, Ont., an immigrant from India, who not only
taught but headed a department at the University of Western Ontario, for
10 years before his fraud was discovered. I smiled when I heard about
this as the case illustrates the ingenuity of certain individuals to
buck the system and succeed. It brought a similar smile to my lips when
I read recently of an ‘architect’ who duped the archdiocese of Goa.
But Canada needs skilled and professional immigrants as well as business
immigrants to live and work here and contribute to the economy so that
the aging and retired population (aged 65 and over) expected to hit 15%
of the population in 2012, can have their pensions secured and paid
regularly at the end of each month.
Incidentally, the business class of immigrants is doing well in Ontario.
Since 1997 when Hong Kong became a part of mainland China, Chinese
immigrants have been pouring into Toronto and changing the multicultural
face of this city of five million. There is one area in Markham in
northeast Toronto, where Chinese businesses are conducted mainly in
Chinese language (Mandarin and Cantonese) with no English signs on the
shop fronts. The Chinese immigrants are also known to be buying monster
homes there worth a million dollars and up by paying cash on the barrel.
The native white Canadians and others of lesser means are swooning over
this extravagant and inflationary trend.
It’s simply amazing to watch how the business class of immigrants from
all over the world settle down in the urban centres of Canada and
prosper within five years of arrival.
However, it’s the university educated immigrant who finds it hard to
crack the system unless he is willing to gain Canadian experience
through retraining and education. Those who follow the retraining route
soon find gainful employment and become successful in the new land.
Today, 70 percent of the Canadian labor force is contributed by
immigrants, 30% of whom are from India and China.
Another Canadian curiosity is the acceptance of refugees, many with no
money and little education, into the Canadian way of life. Over the past
40 years, Canada has accepted Sikh refugees from India, refugees from
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the Vietnamese boat people after the fall of
Saigon in 1975, the war refugees from Bosnia, Biafra, Rwanda and
Somalia, and other refugees from earthquake and tsunami ravaged regions,
as well as those running away from hostile and dictatorial regimes,
including Haiti and Cuba.
Last week, Ottawa announced it will accept 800 refugees from Myanmar
(Burma) out of the thousands camped at the Thailand border. The refugees
make up roughly 10 percent of the total annual immigration. Canada has
indeed become a magnet for refugees of every description. Each refugee
family costs the Canadian taxpayer about $15,000 for the first year for
resettlement, including retraining and health care, but within 5 years
they become part of the multicultural mosaic that is Canada, and
contribute to its cultural diversity and growth.
Of course, some individual Canadians, driven by greed and ambition, will
go south to pad up their bank accounts; some businesses will relocate to
tax havens in the Caribbean and Europe after enjoying the early tax
breaks and making big money in Canada. But, hey, it’s a free country and
we can live with the brain drain knowing that in the long run the gain
from the global talented minds will more than make up for the drain.
Canada stoops to conquer!
Ben Antao
Jul 04 2006
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