Canada’s Big Smile at U.S. Immigration Policies

It’s getting increasingly difficult for U.S. tech companies to recruit their rather dramatic shortfall of qualified engineers and other STEM workers. U.S. universities are not producing enough, and there are lots of “best and brightest” who live in other countries. Visas take a long time, even immediate family of a tech immigrant isn’t guaranteed to be allowed in (think of leaving your spouse or kids behind) and there is general feeling that if the émigré is not white and of European ethnicity, they are likely to face the growing xenophobia that seems to be defining America these days. That so many super-qualified STEM-experienced and educated experts are Asian, people who hardly fit the Trump paradigm of a desirable immigrant in their eyes, doesn’t help.

But as technology and complex finance increasingly define the most lucrative economic values, the so-called Silicon Valley/Wall Street paradigm. Cities everywhere want to be the new/next high-value job creating venue. Some cities do it by creating training programs, building tech infrastructure, offering tax incentives for tech companies to move and even providing free land or buildings. Canada is taking a very different approach. As the United States closes its doors or makes moving to the U.S. increasingly unattractive, Canada has hurled out the welcome mat to qualified STEM workers… and their families… making their immigration rules downright friendly and enticing. 

Toronto, already North America’s most ethnically diverse city (sorry New York and Los Angeles), has focused on bringing in a much larger segment of qualified foreign STEM workers, catering particularly to those who are already disgusted with the new Trumpian policies that make them feel very unwelcome south of the Canadian border. In addition to luring these workers, Toronto has become a major tech center for U.S. companies who can no longer attract foreign engineers, mathematicians and scientists… or even get the U.S. government to let them in. Instead, Canada is sending a clear set of messages: to U.S. companies frustrated with Trumpian inanity – move your research and tech development centers to Canada. To foreign STEM workers – don’t even bother thinking about moving to the United States; come to Canada where you are completely welcome.

“[Toronto] is North America’s fourth largest and fastest growing market for tech workers, currently employing roughly 214,000, according to a report by the Bank of Montreal. Since 2017 Toronto has added more technology jobs than the Bay Area; Washington, D.C.; New York City; and Seattle combined, according to a study by the CBRE group. Recent months have also seen major investments by Uber, Microsoft, Samsung, Intel, and Shopify into the city’s technology ecosystem, which saw more than $1.4 billion in international investment in the month of September alone.” FastCompany.com, June 3^rd. And they even have universal healthcare with no questions asked!

Every May, Toronto goes out of its way to make the next wave of residents, far from their homelands, feel that they are wanted. It’s called “Newcomer Day” (see the picture above). “‘Thousands of people will come out, have a bit of fun, have a bite to eat, but mostly will feel supported and be supported,’ [Toronto Mayor John Tory says, watching] the crowds gather in the square outside City Hall from his office window overlooking the festivities. ‘We want them to understand that for us it’s a big deal they came here and chose Toronto.’…

“If you happen to ask Mayor Tory what the city’s secret is on Newcomer Day, all he’ll have to do is point out the window. Roughly 51% of Torontonians were born outside of Canada, and recent federal programs have made the immigration process even easier for those with technical skills or an interest in starting a business. Canada’s new Entrepreneur Start-Up Visa Program helps foreign entrepreneurs settle in Canada, while the Global Skills Strategy allows employers to bring international talent to the country within two weeks of submitting an application.

“‘If you want to get really granular about why we’ve been able to grow so quickly, it’s because we have government policies that have been responsive to what people told us in the tech sector, which is that ‘we need to move the best and the brightest from India or Hong Kong or Brazil, and get them here on short notice to help build our business,’ explains Tory. ‘We put in place a system that is able to bring people here in a number of days—not months and years—just at a time when other countries are going in the opposite direction.’

“But a welcoming spirit alone will only get you so far, and Tory points to the city’s proximity to the United States, comparatively low housing, office and talent costs, its strong financial, entertainment and biomedical sectors, its post-secondary student population of about 400,000, its relatively affordable education system, and its scale as the continent’s fourth largest city as significant contributing factors…

“When Collision, North America’s fastest-growing technology conference, decided to move from New Orleans to Toronto this year, the switch was met with skepticism, particularly from its [Silicon] Valley-based attendees. ‘Some people didn’t react well to the decision,’ says the event’s founder, Paddy Cosgrave, during the inaugural Toronto iteration of Collision in late May.” FastCompany.com. Given Donald Trump’s failures in immigration, trade negotiation and even job-creation through tax reform, I have to keep reminding myself that he was the focus of The Apprentice and not The Biggest Loser television program. Go figure.

              I’m Peter Dekom, and a President determined to lead the United States through an impossible time-warp back to the 1950s hardly seems the leader entrusted to take the us into a very specialized and high-tech future.