Talent Mismatch: London's Immigrant Workforce Faces Rising Overqualification Rates

Source: Statistics Canada. Table 98-10-0650-01 Overqualification (based on skill level C and D) by visible minority,selected sociodemographic characteristics and the Census year: Canada, geographical regions of Canada, provinces and territories and census metropolitan areas with parts

Immigrants’ skills and talents are being underutilized in the London area, especially for visible minorities, new figures analyzed by the LMLIP’s Fact Sharing Work Group show.

According to data from Statistics Canada’s overqualification rate, 30 per cent of racialized immigrants aged 25-54 with a bachelor’s degree or higher were working jobs that required only a high school diploma in 2021.

That’s an increase of four per cent over the same figures collected during the 2016 census.

A point of concern is the fact London’s overqualification rate is higher than the national average, which CBC News in 2022 reported as being 25 per cent.

The "mismatch" extends to high-demand sectors — like health care — which have been under tremendous strain since the COVID-19 pandemic, StatsCan said at the time, CBC reported.

“The agency found just 36.5 per cent of immigrants trained abroad in registered nursing were working in that field (or in a closely related occupation), for instance, and 41.1 per cent with foreign medical degrees were working as physicians,” CBC reported.

Source: Statistics Canada. Table 98-10-0650-01 Overqualification (based on skill level C and D) by visible minority, selected sociodemographic characteristics and the census year: Canada, geographical regions of Canada, provinces and territories and census metropolitan areas with parts. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25318/9810065001-eng

Equally worrisome is the difference that exists between racialized and white immigrants and even the Canadian-born racialized population.

For instance, the overqualification rate for white immigrants was about 17 per cent in both 2016 and 2021, the data shows.

That’s much closer than the rate for non-immigrants, which hovered around 15 per cent in 2016 and 13.5 per cent in 2021.

While in general terms immigrants are more likely to be over-qualified than the Canadian-born populations, the rate also varied among different immigrant groups.

The Filipino community, for example, had the highest overqualification rate at 53 per cent.

By contrast, the lowest rates were for immigrants from Korea (22 per cent), Japan (20 per cent), and China (17 per cent).

Also important to note is that while the overqualification rate for the Canadian-born population is lower than for immigrants, the rates also differ by racialized population, with Black and West Asian populations having rates sitting at 22 per cent. Filipino, Arab and Korean populations have the next highest overqualification rates, sitting just above the 14 per cent recorded for white Canadian born.

To access the full Matter of Facts report, and other entries in the series, visit our All Are Welcome Here website.