The Mobile Workforce: from India to Canada

By Taiye Aro
taiye.aro@skillsdevelopment.org

Organised by WorldSkills International, the Global Skills Marketplace (GSM) comprised five seminar events that addressed specific global skills issues. CSD’s seminar, chaired by Kate Shoesmith, Senior Manager - Policy and Practice, brought into sharp focus the issues concerning the migration of skilled labour. We invited two eminent speakers to participate, both of whom are well qualified to discuss the issues. Speaking from Canada’s perspective was the Honourable Hector Goudreau, Minister for Employment and Immigration for the province of Alberta. Joining us from India was Professor Dr. Binod Khadria, Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, and Director of the Project on International Migration and Diaspora Studies where a research programme is sponsored by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Government of India.

The Minister explained that, like much of the Western world, Alberta – and Canada as a whole – is faced with an ageing population and has considerable skills gaps, due in part to the booming local oil industry. In spite of the recent economic downturn, it is estimated that Alberta will need an extra 93,000 workers over the next decade to cope with demand, and to address this problem the Albertan Government has initiated the following proposals:

• Develop the skills of the province’s own citizens, including those who have been traditionally excluded from mainstream education and training (e.g. the Aboriginal population who reside in the province of Alberta).
• Remove the barriers between provinces so that skills training and qualifications given in one province can be recognised in another. This would be facilitated through trade agreements such as the one already in place with British Columbia.
• Reform skilled migration policy through the creation of trade agreements, such as the one between Canada and the EU.

The Minister emphasised the value of skills migration, and not just for economic reasons, recognising that migration brings with it greater cultural diversity and increases networks. However, he also acknowledged that the Albertan Government could do more, including:

• Increase the ability of migrants to fully and quickly integrate into their new country.
• Fully recognise and take advantage of the skills of migrants (half of all migrants do not currently utilise their skills effectively); recognising qualifications from other nations/provinces is a lengthy process.
• Collect solid demographic information that can be used to inform migration policy. Alberta has made a commitment not to actively seek to recruit skilled workers from countries where they have their own skill shortages in that sector.

Professor Binod Khadria delivers his presentation with Minister Hector Goudreau looking on.

Professor Binod Khadria drew on his extensive knowledge of migration to discuss India’s experience. According to the Report of the High Level Committee (HLC) on Indian Diaspora, of the 20 million Indian migrants worldwide by the late 1990s, only 5% of overseas Indians were located in Canada, compared to 10% in the United States, 19% in the Gulf and 32% in Southeast Asia.

During his speech, Professor Khadria spoke of a paradigm shift from ‘brain drain’ to ‘brain gain’ and how changes in migration policy reflect this. To help counter the problem of ageing populations, countries have adopted favourable immigration policies to attract skilled workers who meet specific labour needs. Professor Khadria highlighted that at least 30 countries have policies in place promoting the admission of highly skilled workers. One implication of this is that there are competing forces between different countries to either attract skilled workers from abroad or encourage nationals working overseas to come home. An article featured in the Strait Times in 2007 referred to this as the 'war for talent'.

With the need for skills so great around the world, Professor Khadria believes that India can play a key role in filling these skills gaps through its demographic dividend. According to the Planning Commission (Government of India), it has been estimated that by 2020 the world will have a shortage of 46 million working people, while India will have a surplus workforce of approximately 47 million. These figures indicate there really could be a win-win situation for all.

Professor Khadria presented his model, the trinity of ‘age-wage-and-vintage’, to explain the advantage India holds in demographic dividend:

• Age – India has a large young population that is increasing. Young people are in a better position to travel and are at the start of their working careers.
• Wage – a young workforce at the beginning of their working lives will tend to be at the lower end of the salary spectrum, which provides a competitive advantage in global trade for the recruiting companies.
• Vintage – young people are often custodians of the latest knowledge, skills and technology and therefore can share and benefit their employers with these skills.

The age-wage-vintage model should be seen as presenting advantages to both labour-sending and labour-receiving countries. The key advantage for countries acquiring a higher proportion of immigrants is that young people who immigrate will often bring in their newly learnt skills and experiences and the advantages of sustainable higher productivities.

Professor Khadria also drew attention to the disadvantages that sending countries need to offset in order to achieve a win-win situation. In 2008, India received over $40 billion in remittances, which could be used to help eradicate poverty, support education, and provide healthcare services; but most of the remittances are spent on housing and conspicuous consumption. However, if overseas wages of migrants are low, then their remittances will also be reduced, which may be less beneficial for India’s economy. In addition, the migration of youth aggravate the skill gaps in the sending countries, like, for example, India has already experienced a shortfall of teachers.

Aside from the economic drawbacks, there are also social drawbacks - the pain of family members left behind for example. The vulnerability of migrants to frequent changes in immigration policy also needs to be taken into account. Professor Khadria gave the example of the UK Government’s recent decision to backdate the requirement for migrant healthcare professionals already admitted under the highly skilled migrants programme (HSMP) - posing a serious and persisting concern for the migrants while the judiciary and the state are divided over the legality of retrospective application of policy.

Professor Khadria also examined the need to address problems of exploitation of migrants and attitudes of the indigenous population, particularly during periods of economic decline. He took the opportunity to refer to Canada’s likely intention to reduce immigration in the light of the prevailing economic crisis. In a bid to halt the USA’s decline into further recession, President Obama recently delivered a speech imploring US companies to limit outsourcing overseas, saying "No to Bangalore; yes to Buffalo."

The examples presented here clearly illustrate frequent changes in skills migration policy. Advocating stability as the hallmark for immigration policies, Professor Khadria expressed the need for transparency and consistency so as to ensure that Western economies do not end up focusing only on fulfilling their needs at the expense of developing countries.

CSD’s position on skills migration is that policies should not be made at the disadvantage of the sending country, which are often the developing countries. We plan to continue to research further the issue of skills migration. A working paper on the theme of skills migration is due for release towards the end of the year.

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