Doug Ford is completely wrong in his suggestion that immigrants are aiming to laze around
October 22, 2021
By Globe and Mail |
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is not just wrong in suggesting that prospective immigrants to his province are aiming to laze around on the dole.
He’s exactly wrong. The Premier’s statements are completely at odds with an unprecedented shift in the labour market, in which the most recently arrived workers with landed-immigrant status have seen the biggest gains in employment rates, now nearly 10 percentage points higher than prepandemic levels. And that trend is more pronounced in Ontario than for Canada as a whole.
Speaking at an infrastructure-funding press conference in Windsor on Monday, Mr. Ford expressed his concern about a shortage of workers, adding that he would press the federal government to boost immigration levels.
But he went on to add a caveat. “You come here like every other new Canadian has come here, you work your tail off. If you think you’re coming to collect the dole and sit around, not gonna happen,” he said. “Go somewhere else. You want to work, come here.”
Mr. Ford’s concerns are misplaced. Immigrants must have permanent residency status before becoming eligible for payments under Ontario’s social assistance program.
And it is precisely those newly minted permanent residents who have experienced a sharp increase in employment rates during the pandemic. As the chart below shows, workers who have held landed-immigrant status for five years or less have seen not just the biggest rebound in employment during the pandemic, but sharp increases in employment rates compared with prepandemic levels.
| Month | Immigrants, landed five years or less | Immigrants, landed five to 10 years | Immigrants, landed more than 10 years | Born in Canada |
| 2020-02-01 | 62.2 | 66 | 57.1 | 62.5 |
| 2020-03-01 | 60.7 | 62.5 | 55.8 | 61.1 |
| 2020-04-01 | 58.6 | 57.3 | 53 | 58.3 |
| 2020-05-01 | 55.7 | 52.6 | 50.1 | 55.6 |
| 2020-06-01 | 54.7 | 52.7 | 49.4 | 55.4 |
| 2020-07-01 | 55.5 | 54.7 | 50.5 | 57.1 |
| 2020-08-01 | 58.8 | 58.3 | 52.2 | 58.7 |
| 2020-09-01 | 60.7 | 60.8 | 53.7 | 59.2 |
| 2020-10-01 | 62.6 | 62.4 | 54.9 | 59.6 |
| 2020-11-01 | 62.9 | 63.6 | 55.4 | 59.8 |
| 2020-12-01 | 64.1 | 63.3 | 55.2 | 60 |
| 2021-01-01 | 63.4 | 64.1 | 54.9 | 59.1 |
| 2021-02-01 | 63 | 63.3 | 54.5 | 58.6 |
| 2021-03-01 | 62.1 | 63.5 | 54.6 | 58.6 |
| 2021-04-01 | 63.1 | 63.7 | 54.6 | 59.2 |
| 2021-05-01 | 64.9 | 63.2 | 54.6 | 59.7 |
| 2021-06-01 | 66.5 | 63.3 | 54.6 | 60.3 |
| 2021-07-01 | 68.8 | 63.4 | 54.7 | 61.2 |
| 2021-08-01 | 70.7 | 65.1 | 54.7 | 61.8 |
| 2021-09-01 | 71.8 | 66.2 | 55 | 61.6 |
That represents a remarkable surge of nearly 10 percentage points. University of Waterloo economics professor Mikal Skuterud said employment rates usually do not change so rapidly; a long-term change of a single percentage point would normally be significant. ”This is massive,” he said.
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