Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - June 2011
There are approximately 1.4 million small businesses in Canada at the moment, and about half of these will need new people to run them as the baby-boomer generation retires in the coming years.
The baby-boomers currently account for approximately one-third of the country�s population and over half of the working population, according to data from Statistics Canada. As this generation now approaches retirement age, many job opportunities will be opening up for newcomers, as there are not enough Canadians to fill the gap.
This will provide a unique opportunity for skilled and educated immigrants of Indian origin, argues Suresh Madan in a recent article for The Globe and Mail. Madan is president of TiE, a non-profit organization which focuses on promotion, developing and mentoring of entrepreneurs.
�Thirty years ago when Indian immigrants came to Canada, they typically became taxi drivers,� states Madan. �Ten years ago they frequently took jobs at local factories as engineers or as site managers. Now, when Indian immigrants move to Canada, they aspire to be business owners.�
Madan says that Indian immigrants are in a particularly favourable position, as they are often highly trained, with good management and language skills and usually arrive with comparatively large financial assets. Furthermore, the recent growth and broadening of India�s economy has brought them into contact with business across the globe.
India is the source of approximately 40,000 new Canadians each year, and it is time their skills are best put to use, argues Madan. Finding a job can be extremely difficult, particularly in times of recession and encouraging more entrepreneurs is one way not only to address the impending job vacancies that will be left when the baby-boomers retire, but also to make sure that we are not wasting the valuable skills of immigrants who were selected based on their skills and experience in the first place.
Source: Globe and Mail
