Home  Newsfile Immigrants deserve better: Bank chief
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Immigrants deserve better: Bank chief |
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The president of Canada's largest financial institution and one of the
country's biggest employers has called for businesses to do more to
attract talented immigrants.
In a major speech delivered to The Greater Halifax Partnership, Gordon
Nixon, President and CEO of the RBC Financial Group (Royal Bank), said that in an
increasingly competitive and global world, Canada's future depends on
not only attracting, but improving how it accepts new immigrants.
"Immigration has historically been critical to Canada’s growth, yet
there has seldom been a time in our history when it has been so
important," said Nixon. "Our competitive advantage can’t be driven by
the resource industry, and is no longer dominated by capital assets
like plants, equipment and machinery.
It is being driven by human capital."
With the national birth rate at an historic low, and faced with an
aging workforce, Canada is going to have to import talented people to
make up the gap, said Nixon.
"We are already facing a skills shortfall in many parts of Canada and
in the years ahead, we will be counting on immigration for all of the
net growth in our labour force.
"But there’s going to be a global war for talent. Countries like Italy,
Spain and Germany are seeing birthrates fall as dramatically as ours,
and a workforce going gray as quickly as ours. We’ll be going
head-to-head with them for talent, as well as with powerhouses like
China and India, who are literally pouring investments into higher
education, technology and innovation," added Nixon.
He pointed out that for every one engineer graduating in the United States, there are three graduating in China.
"And many Chinese immigrants are now moving back to China, because they see better opportunities at home than here," he warned.
The Canadian government has set a target of welcoming 300,000 new immigrants each year.
"Our success depends not only on our ability to attract new immigrants,
but on providing an environment where new Canadians can maximize their
potential. This can be Canada’s competitive advantage, but we have to
work harder both to attract and maximize the potential of talented
people," said Nixon.
He warned that, historically, Canada does not have the best track
record on this score. "A Statistics Canada report found that our most
recent immigrants had higher levels of education than people born in
Canada. Yet, many more are working in jobs below their level of
education and earning less than those born in Canada. And they
experience higher unemployment rates. I hope that is going to change,"
said Nixon.
He criticized employers for overlooking immigrants in their human
resource planning and not hiring immigrants at the level at which they
were trained.
"Businesses need to pay attention to maximizing the talents of visible
minorities and immigrants. This solution will bring untold benefits up
and down the prosperity chain…for our businesses, our communities and
our country — and it will have a profound human impact as well," he
said.
Nixon recounted the story of an immigrant from India, Binoj Daivasahayam.
"Binoj emigrated to Canada from India in April of 2004 with a Bachelor
of Commerce and an MBA in his back pocket. He is 34 years old, speaks
three languages, and has eight solid years of financial services
experience.
"He also brought with him the spirit of an entrepreneur - because Toronto wasn’t his final destination: Halifax was.
"It takes real courage to come to a place where your cultural community
isn’t well established. Of the 100 or so Indian families in Halifax,
Binoj didn’t know a single soul. But that’s exactly why he chose to
come. With fewer immigrants here, he felt there was a greater
opportunity to build a future.
The bad news is that education and enthusiasm aren’t always enough.
"In fact, his first job interview was at a grocery store for a cashier’s job, which he lost to another immigrant.
"The store actually did end up hiring him, and while he spent his days
working as a stock clerk, he spent his nights working towards his
Mutual Funds license."
The story however has a happy ending, said Nixon.
"Binoj had another ace in his pocket: MISA, the Metropolitan Immigrant Settlement Association.
"Within a week of arriving in Halifax, he had already connected with
MISA. In fact, MISA helped him find that grocery store job as a quick
way for him to get some Canadian experience. But everyone’s end goal
was to find a position that tapped his professional training in
financial services.
"MISA eventually connected RBC and Binoj. Right away, we knew he was a
high-potential candidate, and we hired him as a Personal Financial
Service Representative at our Spring Garden Road branch in January.
"I’m happy to say that Binoj has joined us today. I will only embarrass
him for a moment by telling you that he’s a tremendous asset in
attracting new business to RBC. Clients, especially new Canadians, love
to deal with him. He even spends two hours every week with the Nova
Scotia Nominee program, helping educate newcomers about how to navigate
the banking system in Canada."
Nixon said about 23 per cent of RBC's workforce is currently comprised of visible minorities.
"But that number drops to about ten per cent for our executive
management team, and we know we’ve got to do better, so we’re taking
action.
"For example, we’ve contracted specialists to evaluate the Canadian
equivalents of foreign credentials, so we can make sure we’re not
overlooking good prospective employees," he said.
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