This paper is going to focus on how poverty affects immigrants coming to Canada. It merely means that the document is about how different individuals who come to settle in Canada in search of better living standards are affected by poverty. It will cover rhetorical questions such as: What factors contribute to poverty among the immigrants? Are these factors donated by the Canadian economy or by the government policies? And how poverty affects the Canadian immigrants. Factors that contribute to poverty among Canadian immigrants are; language barriers, education fee, education levels, wages, income, employment, immigrant taxes and the decline in the economic well-being.
Immigration rates in Canada have recently increased making this country to be among the countries in the world that accept most immigrants per capita. Over the last 25 years, the financial positions of immigrants in Canada declined compared to the native population. A 2017 Canada statistics study revealed that income of the new immigrants deteriorates at a significant rate. In 2015 Canada received 271660 immigrants (Goksel, 2017). The reason for the high number of immigrants in Canada is because the country faces labor shortages since it has a sparse population which cannot meet labor demand for its numerous industries. The other factor is that Canada has a low birth rate. Despite the mentioned problems immigrants coming to Canada are still affected by poverty, and this is contributed by different factors which will get discussed below.
The language barrier is a communication obstacle between individuals who do not speak a similar language and are unable to talk the same language. And this is a factor contributing to poverty among Canadian settlers indirectly since the majority of these immigrants are unfamiliar with the writings the Canadian people use. It is a significant problem to settlers because they must spend a lot of their time learning these languages to enable them to get employment and communicate correctly. Most of them lack adequate time to learn these languages, and the cost of acquiring the new style is expensive and unaffordable for most of them. Most of the time get wasted in learning these languages instead of engaging in different economic activities, resulting in increases in poverty among the migrants. The language barrier also restricts some of these individuals from being employed by various firms due to poor communications and this further illustrate how poverty affects Canadian immigrants who are unable to afford the fee to be taught the new languages. They end up struggling hard to secure employment.
Education fees in Canada are expensive compared to other countries. A significant number of migrants are unable to afford these education fees. Migrants migrating to Canada to pursue education find life in this country to be tough due to high education fees. It restricts settlers from continuing their education while others drop out of school. This factor also illustrates how poverty affects Canadian immigrants where most of the children of these individuals are unable to continue with school to certain levels reducing their competence to a specific employment or employment positions. It has also increased social vices among the immigrants' such as an increase in prostitution, violence and robbery. Many settlers fail to secure jobs to different professions but getting employed as manual laborers with little wages in various sectors. Contributing to rise in poverty rates among the Canadian migrants (Bloom, Grenier, & Gunderson, 2014).
Canadian system emphasis on finding skilled immigrants. This country has more skilled settlers compared to the United States. However, they receive higher wages once they get settled. Immigrants to Canada have highest education levels, 40% of Canadian laborers with post-graduate degrees are immigrants, 20% are foreign-born, and 38% holding master's degree are born in the country (Goksel, 2017). Most of these immigrants get affected by persistent problems where employers and organizations fail to recognize their foreign educational credentials, and this has increased due to increase in their numbers. It has grown poverty among the migrants coming to Canada because a majority of them are educated, but their education documents are not recognized in this country making them seek for low paying employment (Picot, Sweetman, & Institute for Research on Public Policy, 2015). Income earned from these employments are little to meet essential demands of this migrants due to the increased standards of living in this country. Most of them settle in poor housing conditions and find it challenging to access better medical facilities and to pursue higher education or even to take their children to the particular type of academic institution or higher institutions of learning. And it has resulted in increases in the rates of poverty among immigrants coming to Canada.
Recent Canadian statistics reveal that increase in the immigrant population reduces wages by specific percentages and skilled workers such as those with post-graduate degrees experiences the most significant impacts. Most of the immigrants are forced to search employment that is below their education level due to credential issues. They also receive less compensation than their native counterparts even after doing similar work (In Grabb, In Reitz, & In Hwang, 2016). Different factors contribute to newcomers earning low-wages compared to the natives. Immigrants have low labor productivity. They are unfamiliar with the labor market hence they are unable to maximize their salaries. The employers have little knowledge about their history thus paying them low wages since they lack confidence in them, abilities and experience. And lastly, they do not access better jobs due to their immobility since they prefer settling in certain cities such as Toronto (Richmond, 2018). And this has increased poverty among the newcomers making them live below the poverty lines.
Unemployment rates among the newcomers in Canada have recently increased due to increase in their number. In 2016 unemployment rates of the immigrates was 15.5% compared to that of the Canadian native of 6.9% this suggests that it will take long years for newcomers to reach similar employment rates compared to those of the natives (Goksel, 2017). Leading to increase in unemployment rates which increase sufferings among the immigrants. Most of these people migrate to Canada in search of better lives and jobs and later find life being difficult as opposed to their perceptions. It is a significant factor that has led to many newcomers to live below the poverty line and unable to meet essential needs such as proper medical facilities and education.
The recent immigrants' income levels have deteriorated over the past years due to high rates of unemployment and low wages among the migrants. It has increased the overall low-income rates in Canada despite the country implementing changes to inspire the movement of skilled and educated immigrants. Income of immigrants has declined due to the decline in the economic well-being of the entire nation. Immigrants are deliberately placed to secondary sector occupations by corporate and the government, which are characterized by low wages, dangerous working environments, prolonged unemployment periods and instability. They get discriminated due rto their home country, especially immigrants from Africa. It is evident that immigrants do not receive proper wage to enable them to improve their living standards and this has continued to worsen the poverty rates among them. Despite the decline in the well-being of the immigrants, this does not have adverse effects on either the second generation immigrants or those newcomers who came when they were kid (Card & Raphael, 2014).
These risks and opportunities have led to an increase in poverty among Canadian immigrants in different ways. There is increase in probability that specific risks will happen in the future such as; changes in the interest rates, fluctuations of oil prices and change in the fiscal policies and this will, in turn, lead to a shift in investment, government spending, consumption and trading patterns of the economy and will affect the labour requirements. Change in regulations and policies has a significant effect such as a change in policy regarding foreign education credential recognition (Picot, Sweetman, & Institute for Research on Public Policy, 2015) will lead to increase in the supply of Canadian labor market. And this will have both negative and positive effects on the immigrants about poverty levels. On the positive side, it will lower poverty rates among the immigrants since immigrants' education documents will be recognized and on the contrary hand, it will increase poverty and sufferings among the immigrants. This risk reduces the labor requirements hence growing the unemployment rates among the newcomers leading to their lowered standards of living and experiencing the negative consequences of poverty.
Taxes imposed on the immigrants by the government or the public officers have increased poverty rates among the immigrants. Newcomers families below the poverty lines are taxed little amount of money compared to the wealthy individuals. These taxes are inform of real estate taxes which may be direct as owners or indirectly through the rent payment and sales taxes. And they must be proportionate with the income of the migrants (Picot, Sweetman, & Institute for Research on Public Policy, 2015). Increase in immigrants’ population increases the poor population posing an adverse effect on the public resources. And this has resulted in many newcomers who are located in the cities to live in concentrated households. And this has affected, and increased poverty among the migrants to Canada since these people earn little wages which are unable to cover most of their essential life needs. The little they earn get taxed making them worse off than before (Card & Raphael, 2014).
The mentioned factors have contributed to increases in poverty among these people migrating to Canada. Some of them have increased sufferings among the immigrants as opposed to their previous perceptions and beliefs about life in Canada. These factors also indirectly reveal how these people are affected by poverty. Increase in the unemployment rate, low wages and income, increase in the prices of taxes on the immigrants and lack of recognition of foreign education credentials reveal how immigrants are affected by poverty. Increased unemployment rates and payment of little wage to immigrants have reduced investment and saving and also force a majority of these people to settle in concentrated poor housing conditions which are affordable. And it has increased social vices such as a rise in drug trafficking rates, prostitution, crime and violence in these areas due to rising in poverty and suffering. School dropout rates among the immigrant youths have increased over a duration of time because the education fees are expensive and many newcomers are unable to afford this fees prices since they receive little wages and the wages are also taxed (Card & Raphael, 2014).
References
Bloom, D., Grenier, G., & Gunderson, M. (2014). The Changing Labor Market Position of Canadian Immigrants. doi:10.3386/w4672
Card, D., & Raphael, S. (2014). Immigration, poverty, and socioeconomic inequalities in Canada. Calgary: Calgary Foundation.
Goksel, G. U. (2017). Socio-economic Integration of Skilled Immigrants in Canada. Canadian immigrant statistics, 105-144. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-65843-8_4
In Grabb, E. G., In Reitz, J. G., & In Hwang, M. (2016). Social inequality in Canada: Dimensions of disadvantage among the immigrants (3rd ed.). Toronto: Toronto publishers.
Picot, G., Sweetman, A., & Institute for Research on Public Policy. (2015). Making it in Canada: Immigration outcomes and policies (6th ed.).
Richmond, A. H. (2018). Social Mobility of Immigrants in Canada. Canadian Society, 724-740. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-81601-9_48
