University-educated immigrants find fewest jobs in Vancouver: Study finds higher percentage remain in low-skill fields
Vancouver Sun
December 23, 2008
Chad Skelton

More than a quarter of university-educated immigrants in Vancouver are still working in low-skilled jobs a decade after arriving in Canada, a higher proportion than in any other major city in the country, according to a new study by Statistics Canada.

The study, released Monday, looked at how Vancouver immigrants who arrived from 1990 to 1994 with university degrees were faring. It found that 24 per cent of the men and 33 per cent of the women were still working in low-skilled jobs -- such as clerks, cashiers or taxi drivers.

That's higher than the national average of 21 per cent for men and 29 per cent for women, and also slightly higher than the country's other major immigrant-receiving cities such as Toronto and Montreal….

Overall, the study found that well-established immigrants -- those who have been in Canada between 10 and 15 years -- are faring much worse now than they were in the early 1990s….

Researchers have long known that recent immigrants to Canada often struggle to find work that matches their skills.

What makes this recent study worrying, said study author Diane Galarneau, is that it suggests those barriers don't erode over time.

"We used to see this for recent immigrants and now we're starting to see it for established immigrants," she said. "This is a form of underemployment and it reduces their contribution to Canada."…