Stemming a silent exodus

You may have heard this one before.
Where is the best place to have a heart attack in Canada?
In a cab.
Hopefully, this painfully hilarious description of Canada’s woeful task at harnessing the skills of its newcomers will be a thing of the past with Ottawa announcing an expanded overseas orientation service to help skilled immigrants to Canada get a head start.
New offices will be opened in India, China, the Philippines and Britain to help migrants get a helping hand with an overseas orientation service, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said.
 More that 250,000 new immigrants come to Canada each year from around the world and many with experience and degrees end up doing menial jobs because of a very protective and stringent credential recognition process.
“We want newcomers to be able to use their skills as soon as possible in Canada,” said Minister Kenney.
“This funding will help them jump-start the credential recognition process before they arrive in Canada. It’s good for them and good for the Canadian economy,” he said.
This is a long overdue move which can and will stem the estimated Canadian economy loss of more than $2 billion each year as a result of not utilizing the professional skills of new immigrants.
The new program will also help check a silent exodus from Canada as many countries in Asia have launched intensive “come home” campaigns designed to lure back capital and brain power.
From Vietnam to India to China and Singapore, governments are offering everything from cash incentives to preferential status as they join the race in the world’s economic mainstream.
Vietnam announced that it plans to woo the country’s 2.7-million strong Diaspora.
These are mainly Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) who fled during and after the war that ended in 1975 to start new lives in about 100 countries, including Canada.
China says that of the one million people who have studied abroad since the 1980s, two-thirds have not come back.
“It has been a great loss for China - which is now in dire need of people of expertise - to see well-educated professionals leave after the country has invested a lot in them,” the official newspaper China Daily said.
The Blue Book on Global Politics and Security, issued by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said, “As our economic conditions as well as academic and business environments improve, a growing number of Chinese professionals are coming back. It’s time to nurture that reverse migration.”
The story is the same in India which is trying to lure NRIs or non-resident Indians.
An Associated Chamber of Commerce study in India estimated that around 25 million NRIs in 125 countries were investing in property in India.
In the ultra-modern city state of Singapore, a plan in 2000 to turn the country into a global biomedical hub has attracted scores of the world’s top scientists who were lured by promises of hassle-free funding, the freedom to follow their research interests and a US$300 million ‘science city’ fitted with well-equipped laboratories, day care centers, bars and a fitness center.”
Canada has always been ranked as one the most desirable places to live in the world.
Many are attracted by this.
Many also do not understand the realities of a new life in Canada.
And many leave when their hopes and dreams cannot be attained.
Here is hoping that the new and improved attempt to help skilled immigrants get a head start in Canada paves the way for more to stay.