After the departure of Coronavirus or COVID-19, the immigrants already in Canada will be most important for the recovery procedures. Canada’s economic recovery, unlike many other countries, is dependent on immigration policies. Secondly, how these policies shall shape up for the future. A strategy is always dependent on the current course of events. Hence, COVID-19 is a virus that has highly affected these strategies to a great extent. As the IMF predicts the economy will come into a contraction of 3%. Statistically, this is the worst economic downturn since the great depression.
Although, Canada is huge area-wise with at least 10 provinces and territories. But, they shall have to overlook their policies for a positive change in the future. More reliance shall be imposed on taxation by the Govt. A necessity for the accumulation of funds in overcoming the recovery challenges. Hence, it is very necessary that the Canadian Govt. makes the best utilization of the manpower resources available in Canada.
A bit of a thought process and pondering regards to the education sector & the number of international students coming to Canada. This reform & thinking procedure is a necessity to initiate the recovery change in the Canadian economy.
Travel restrictions were imposed in Canada and days before the imposing of restrictions was an announcement regarding the immigrants. Surprisingly, the Canadian Govt. announced 1 million immigrants into Canada from 2020-2022. Hence, it is for the good prospects of the Canadian economy especially Post COVID-19. However, since then things have changed slightly due to the emergence of pandemic COVID-19.
SHOULD CANADA WELCOME MORE IMMIGRANTS?
According to the current scenario, there shall naturally be a change in policy for immigrants as expected. At least there is a slight adjustment that is expected. COVID-19 has been the cause of some distinct changes in Govt. policies.
However, it wouldn’t be a wise or sound economic policy to bring significant reductions in the number of immigrants due to COVID-19. As a matter of fact, these are the times when Canada needed to bring an increase in immigrants coming to Canada. Something that was affected badly due to the pandemic. The pandemic proved to be highly dangerous than it was initially predicted in its early days.
The upcoming 2-3 months, i.e. Post COVID-19, will decide the fate of future migrant policies and immigrants coming to Canada. It highly depends on how fast and immediate steps can be taken by the Canadian Govt. for the recovery process.
WHY CANADA NEEDS MORE IMMIGRANTS?
Canada definitely needs more immigrants especially in the education sector for the promotion of Universities, research, academics, and jobs in various sectors in Canada. The country is vast, i.e. 2nd in terms of area in the world after Russia. Naturally, the amount of land available should be in proportion to the number of people living irrespective of the immigrant ratio. Hence, for the sake of competition in the developing world as they have proved the population density must be on a higher side.
Job saturation in many industries is important as well as for the sake of global expansions & tourism. It’s the Govt.’s desire to welcome 300,000 immigrants per year to help alleviate the demographic challenges. As more Canadians are retiring fast due to the increasing old population in Canada. Therefore, the need to fill in the labor market & the services sector is on a higher side post-COVID-19. Immigration comes into play here as a catalyst in balancing the number of people working in Canada. Stats have also shown that the country is not having enough children, hence the need for immigrants is far more than earlier counts available. Immigration and migrants will be the key drivers of the Canadian economy in the next decade, i.e. 2030. This is similar to the way it has been driving the economy of Canada since the early 90s.
Today, even in times of Coronavirus, pandemic immigration tends to account for all of Canada’s labor force growth. The welcoming of more migrants Post COVID-19 shall be a big boost for economic growth in the future. However, the process must take place with due considerations.
IMMIGRANTS CAN HELP CREATING MORE JOBS POST-COVID-19:
As we have discussed earlier immigrants can help in the fast recovery by creating more jobs after the COVID-19 pandemic. A disaster that is still hurting the Canadian economy and has been a cause of many job losses. There is no doubt that the economy is facing tough times. However, there are most chances that the immigrants will help in bringing stability to the newly created jobs and also support job creation in many other ways. Previous stats have shown that immigrants have a high potential and propensity to start businesses.
SMEs or fresh businesses are good for the economic recovery process and can sustain the economy at a far rapid pace. In terms of job creation, immigrant entrepreneurs have done a fantastic job from 2003 to 2013 according to previous stats. According to stats, these jobs account for 25% of new private-sector jobs within the decade period. Hence, immigrant entrepreneurs can contribute heavily to the economy of Canada in terms of the creation of jobs, part-time & full-time vacancies, and giving a big hand in the recovery process.
According to the Federal Govt. statistics, over 600,000 international students in Canada are contributors to over $22 billion in economic activity every year. This is also a huge contribution in terms of placements being 200,000 jobs annually. The country already has over 8 million population that is immigrants and their contributions to the economy of Canada are even bigger.