In a very interesting report (Lifting all boats: promoting social cohesion and economic inclusion in the Toronto Region) published last week, the Toronto Board of Trade addresses some important issues related to the GTA. Among them is the need to take better advantage of the skills new immigrants bring to this country. In particular, the study reports that the “wages earned by Canadian immigrants are lower, while the rates of involuntary part-time work, temporary employment and over-qualification are all higher than non-immigrants.”

There is no doubt that the skills of many new immigrants are not properly utilized in Canada, in both the private and public sectors, and there is still a lot of work to do.

At the same time, there also is a problem with our immigration system that privileges those with higher education at the expense of those with practical skills.

For example, in an article on this report, the Globe and Mail wrote about the difficulties Yisola Taiwo, an architect who immigrated to Canada from Nigeria three years ago with his wife, is facing in finding a job for which he is qualified.

I don't know the details of Taiwo's immigration file, but I do know about many similar cases. Canada claims to need the services of immigrants with PhDs but, for some mysterious reason, it prevents them from working in their chosen field and pays them unemployment insurance instead. I'm sure that there has to be something more to it.

According to the Globe story, back in Nigeria Taiwo “helped design the athletes' village for Abuja's All-Africa Games. But three years after moving to Canada in 2007 with a pregnant wife and big dreams, Yisola Taiwo has yet to land his first architecture job.” Furthermore, “his wife, Bunmi Sofoluwe-Taiwo, still hasn't been able to find work after leaving her career with the Lagos government.”

So the question is: Who fools these immigrants into leaving promising careers in their home country to make a jump into the unknown?

The answer is our immigration system. It puts a lot of emphasis on education and knowledge of one of the two official languages. If you have a job offer, it gives you 10 points and the so-called “suitability” requirement gives you another 10. But if you have a PhD, as was the case with Taiwo from Nigeria, and you speak proper English, you get 49 points. You get another 21 points if you have up to four years' experience and another 10 if you are between 21 and 49 years old. Now, considering that the minimum number of points required to come to Canada is 67, it's easy to understand why people like Taiwo are allowed into the country but remain unemployed. They can easily total 80 points without having a job offer.

This also explains why a bricklayer or labourer from any country in Central or South America or Europe is not allowed to immigrate to Canada.

The results of this immigration madness (implemented by former Liberal governments under pressure from their Quebec caucus asking them to put more emphasis on language than skills) is clearly visible on the streets of Toronto these days.

We have highly educated people like Taiwo, humiliated and frustrated and collecting unemployment insurance, while thousands of illegal immigrants, mainly from Central and South America or Eastern Europe, are illegally doing legal jobs.

We do have to take care of people we irresponsibly let into the country but, if we really want to solve the problem, we have to deal with them before they arrive.

I know that the future of our manufacturing sector lies mainly in highly specialized jobs requiring skilled and highly educated people. But these jobs are not here yet and we shouldn't lure highly educated people to this country only to list them among the unemployed. We only have to look at the large number of young Canadians who have just graduated from our universities and are still unemployed to understand that our economic problems are not due to a lack of qualified people.

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If we don't change the points system, we can accommodate all the Taiwos we want but the problem will always be there. As soon as we find a job for them, thousands more will show up at our airports, along with thousands of others less skilled and less educated. But the latter, because they don't speak French and don't have a PhD, will illegally do a legal job, be underpaid and exploited, while those with the PhDs and language skills will be collecting unemployment insurance in Toronto.

Angelo Persichilli is the political editor of Corriere Canadese. His column appears Sunday.