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Baby, we got a bubble!?

Undead said:
The problem is that our economy relies on immigration for cheap labour to do the jobs Canadians won't;
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But it’s so unfair how we trick potential immigrants.


When my family emigrated to Canada from the UK in the mid 1970s my Dad need only appeoach the HR Dept at J.Water Thompson in London where he worked in ad sales and request a transfer to the Toronto office. Done. With that we all moved to the GTA, bought a house (interest rates were well over 15% IIRC) and get on with life. That’s how first world immigration flows worked, with easy transitions and qualification recognition.

Today’s immigrants to Canada rarely have this experience. Instead they‘re not told that their education, credentials, skills and experience are mostly meaningless. All we want is their unskilled labour, plus their young children to become tomorrow’s consumers and if women, our professional class. I think people would think twice about coming here if they knew.
 
Admiral Beez said:
But it’s so unfair how we trick potential immigrants.


When my family emigrated to Canada from the UK in the mid 1970s my Dad need only appeoach the HR Dept at J.Water Thompson in London where he worked in ad sales and request a transfer to the Toronto office. Done. With that we all moved to the GTA, bought a house (interest rates were well over 15% IIRC) and get on with life. That’s how first world immigration flows worked, with easy transitions and qualification recognition.

Today’s immigrants to Canada rarely have this experience. Instead they‘re not told that their education, credentials, skills and experience are mostly meaningless. All we want is their unskilled labour, plus their young children to become tomorrow’s consumers and if women, our professional class. I think people would think twice about coming here if they knew.
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Oh, I couldn't agree more. What's more, most of my friend network, all of whom are non-white immigrants, say the same thing. Many people are realizing the way this country currently does immigration harms both the country and emigrating hopefuls.
 
evandyk said:
From just this weekend:

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I think that's the same article I posted above. It's a travesty how we trick these people.

But also, buyer beware. When my Dad wanted to move us to Canada in the 1970s he first came by himself to get settled and to make sure that the story he was sold by the Canadian government matched what he found. If you're a bank manager in Pakistan, come to Canada on a visitor visa, do your due diligence. If you can't afford the trip, then ask others already in Canada.

Canada also does itself no favours by encouraging people with education, skills or experience that will not be recognized here from emigrating to Canada. Australia does immigration better in some ways, for starters, the applicants MUST pass an English proficiency test before they come - no English (or French in our case), no permit. And, Australia does not allow family reunification - when we moved to Canada we would never have thought to bring my grandparents, etc. along. If they want to come to Canada, they can apply on their own merits. The last thing Australia does well is credential equivalation before the newcomers arrive - so that a nurse in India, for example, can more quickly work in Australia as nurse, rather than having to go back to nursing school.
 
I’m not sure I’d want an eastern bloc doctor treating me. Well, Baltic states, sure, a Russian doctor? IDK. But nor should an eastern bloc doctor be led to believe that in coming to Canada they can practice here. My family doctor is from the UK, and I assume he had some equivalency paperwork to do BEFORE he came to ensure he could practice here.
 
Admiral Beez said:
But it’s so unfair how we trick potential immigrants.


When my family emigrated to Canada from the UK in the mid 1970s my Dad need only appeoach the HR Dept at J.Water Thompson in London where he worked in ad sales and request a transfer to the Toronto office. Done. With that we all moved to the GTA, bought a house (interest rates were well over 15% IIRC) and get on with life. That’s how first world immigration flows worked, with easy transitions and qualification recognition.

Today’s immigrants to Canada rarely have this experience. Instead they‘re not told that their education, credentials, skills and experience are mostly meaningless. All we want is their unskilled labour, plus their young children to become tomorrow’s consumers and if women, our professional class. I think people would think twice about coming here if they knew.
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Your dad was probably in the top 0.1% relative to the overall world population in the mid 1970s.
In 2022 terms the pool of top 0.1% would be something like a medium sized city mayor in India or deputy-mayor in China. Or upper-middle management at one of the big tech companies.

I'm sure it's still as easy, if not even easier, for immigrants from such groups to move to Canada compared to 50 years ago.
 
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MichaelZ said:
Your dad was probably in the top 0.1% relative to the overall world population in the mid 1970s.
In 2022 terms the pool of top 0.1% would be something like a medium sized city mayor in India or deputy-mayor in China. Or upper-middle management at one of the big tech companies.

I'm sure it's still as easy, if not even easier, for immigrants from such groups to move to Canada compared to 50 years ago.
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Correct. One of my friend's family members is a senior manager at one of the banks. Before emigrating, she was with a large bank in her country. She was transferred here and later landed a new bank gig fairly easily.

Obviously, the vast majority of immigrants are in a significantly worse position. My father was a cleaner at the Skydome and assembly line worker in Scarborough before landing work in his field.
 
Undead said:
This is extremely common. The "engineer driving a taxi" is not a stereotype. In my own immigrant community, I know Eastern Bloc doctors and engineers who work as condo corp superintendents and much worse.
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As a post-retirement gig I was an investigator conducting 'due diligence' investigations for gaming registration (pretty much anybody who works in or in relation to a legal gaming facility in Ontario has to be registered by the AGCO). I lost track of the number of first-generation Canadian who were highly qualified in a range of professions who came through looking to be employed as table dealers.

Many of our systems are somewhat goofy. My wife has two nieces who received their medical training in the UK (or Ireland, I can't remember). Both had to jump through many extra hoops as 'foreign trained doctors'. Surely they can discern between UK medical standards and South Sudan.
 
Surprise! Bidding wars and houses selling for hundreds of thousands over asking are back again, as buyers churn through the limited supply and deal with a rising interest rate world where buying now means (temporarily) paying less interest than buying later.

www.thestar.com

Business News - Economy News | The Star

Consumer-focused business news and personal finance advice from the Star's award-winning reporters and columnists.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

“As rates continue to go up, seemingly every rate you can get right now is going to be better than the rate you’re going to get in a couple of weeks or months,” Greenspan said.
“The shock has worn off. The reality has set in. And if a buyer wants to buy something, now is a better time than it will be in a couple of months when rates will increase even further.”
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What a fascinating quote. There's always a reason they have to advise you to "buy now, at any cost."
 
Jonny5 said:
Surprise! Bidding wars and houses selling for hundreds of thousands over asking are back again
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IDK, never in my 24 years here in Cabbagetown have I seen so many houses taking weeks and weeks to sell.

https://www.realtor.ca/map#ZoomLevel=16&Center=43.666230,-79.368790&LatitudeMax=43.67304&LongitudeMax=-79.35180&LatitudeMin=43.65942&LongitudeMin=-79.38578&Sort=6-D&PGeoIds=g10_dpz83vjg&GeoName=Cabbagetown, Toronto, ON&PropertyTypeGroupID=1&PropertySearchTypeId=1&TransactionTypeId=2&BuildingTypeId=1&Currency=CAD

These prices are insane still. $2+ million for three floor semis? Who can afford these? When I bought in 1998 it was well under $300k, or about four times our household income after tax income. Now it's about fifteen times our current income. Jeez.
 
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