Title: The concern is that Canada's brightest minds are defecting to the U.S. where pay is higher, taxes ar
1What is The "Brain Drain?
- The concern is that Canada's brightest minds are
defecting to the U.S. where pay is higher, taxes
are lower, and opportunities are abound - The threat is that with the loss of these highly
educated and skilled workers from Canada to the
U.S., the global competitiveness of our country
will be compromised, and our standard of living
will decline - WHAT ARE THE FACTS?
1
2The Brain Drain Has Been An Issue For Over 100
Years
- Editorials on the subject have been written as
far back as in the 1920's in Maclean's magazine - According to the Swiss business school IMD,
over-all, Canada ranks 10th out of 47 countries
in the world for competitiveness - According to the United Nations, Canada remains
the most attractive country in the world for
immigration
2
3The Proportion of Skilled Canadians Moving To The
U.S. Has Steadily Declined Over The Last 100 Years
- "Since the beginning of the century the migration
from Canada to the U.S. has been moving steadily
downward" (J. Helliwell, UBC, 1999) - From 1982 to 1996, relative to the increase in
the Canadian population, the number of managers
and professionals moving to the U.S. from Canada
has actually declined
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4The Proportion of Skilled Canadians Moving To The
U.S. Has Steadily Declined Over The Last 100 Years
- "The recent net emigration flows to the U.S. are
up only very slightly and the level is well below
that in the 1950s and early 1960s" (A. Egelton,
Bank of Montreal, 1999)
4
5Over The Last 30 Years, There Has Been A
Substantial Brain Gain From Europe, Asia and The
Third World
- From 1990 to 1996 on an annual basis
- 8500 university educated people moved from Canada
to the U.S. (total emigrants was 21,731) - 32,800 university educated people moved into
Canada (total immigrants was 230,581) - The immigration/emigration ratio for university
educated people was 2.6 (total migrants was 10.6)
5
6The Skills of New Emigrants To Canada Are
Comparable To Those Leaving Canada
- In examining the high tech sector, Statistics
Canada found that the computer scientists
immigrating into Canada possessed skills
comparable to their Canadian colleagues. - Often the brightest and best of other countries
come to Canada for advanced education and try to
stay when their training is completed
6
7A Relatively Small Proportion of Canada's
Skilled Work Force Moves To The U.S.
- The emigration to the U.S. of physicians, nurses,
scientists, engineers and managers is between 1-5
out of 1000 people in total according to
Statistics Canada - In 1995, only 1.5 of the more than 300,000
Canadians who graduated from university or
college moved to the U.S. after graduation
according to Statistics Canada
6
8The Major Reason Why Recent Graduates Move To The
U.S. Is Lack of Job Opportunities in Canada
- Of the Canadian graduates in 1995 that moved to
the U.S., 57 did so to pursue work opportunities
(17 relocated for marriage or relationships) - The unemployment rate is about 4 in the U.S. and
8 in Canada - Interestingly, Canadian companies have difficulty
in finding highly skilled employees
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9Many Ph.D. Graduates Go To The U.S. To Obtain
Post-Doctoral Training
- Of graduates moving to the U.S. in 1995
- 23 left for educational purposes
- 20 were from health-related fields
- 12 of all Ph.D. graduates migrated, most
commonly to California - Foreign training of post-doctoral fellows is
critical for bring new technology and skills into
Canada
9
10Many Emigrants To The U.S. Do So For Higher Wages
- 40 of the recent Ph.D.'s that moved to the U.S.
claimed that they did so for higher wages - In an ITAC study, the salaries of the earners in
the top 25 in six separate categories of
employees in the software industry were examined.
After adjusting for the stronger purchasing power
of the U.S. dollar, Canadian software developers
and help desk technicans were earning 13-21 more
than their U.S. counterparts. Only Web sites
designers were paid 19 less.
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11Migrants Do Not Move To The States Because of
Lower Taxes
- Of the Canadian graduates in 1995 that moved to
the U.S., "an insignificant proportion of
graduates explicitly said that lower taxes in the
U.S. were a factor that attracted them to work
there" - According to a recent Standard and Poor study,
once the costs of private-sector health and
educational services, which are principally
publicly funded in Canada, are added to the U.S.
tax bill, there is no difference in the overall
tax burden.
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12Migrants Do Not Move To The States Because of
Lower Taxes
- The Paris-based Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development reported that in
1998 the disposable income of families earning
the average industrial wage, expressed as a per
cent of gross pay, is higher in Canada than the
U.S. - "In 1995, the median family in Canada had
CDN30,200 to spend after taxes, compared to
CDN29,500 for the median U.S. family."
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13Migrants Do Not Move To The States Because of
Lower Taxes
- For wealthy and highly educated Canadians the
federal and provincial tax rate is about 50. The
U.S. federal tax rate is about 40, and 47 of the
States levy personal income taxes that average
7. So there really is not much difference in the
tax rate.
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14Data In Support of An Explosion Of Recent
Temporary Visas Issued To Canadians Is Unreliable
- According to a recent report from the Conference
Board of Canada, the number of U.S. work visas
issued to Canadians has quadrupled in the five
years ended in 1998 - In 1996, there were 26,794 American work visas
issued to Canadians and 13,337 visas issued by
Canada, indicating a net out-flow of 13,457 that
year
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15Data In Support of An Explosion Of Recent
Temporary Visas Issued To Canadians Is Unreliable
- The American Immigration and Naturalization
Service gathers data on temporary work visas and
counts multiple border crossings. Each time an
individual that crosses the border (except by
car) for any reason, he is re-counted as another
temporary worker - Canada counts visas issued to Americans on a
first entry basis only
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16There Is No Significant Drain of Talent From
Canada
- According to a report released on July 13, 1999
by the Canadian Association of University
Teachers, most evidence for the brain drain are
selective anecdotes - "Only a very small number of highly educated and
skilled workers are emigrating to the U.S. This
outflow is small relative to historical trends,
small relative to the overall stock of skilled
workers, and offset by a huge brain gain from the
rest of the world."
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