Foreign Credential Recognition and Assessment: An Introduction

By 2005, 19.2% of the Canadian population was foreign-born, the world’s highest proportion following Australia (24.6%). As early as the 2001 Census, the nation included 3,374,057 degree-qualified2 immigrants and 3,801,118 with post-secondary diplomas or certificates. Between 1996 and 2001, newly arriving immigrants were more than twice as likely as the Canadian-born to be degree qualified (37% compared to 15%). While male immigrants to Canada were much more highly educated than females (41% with degrees compared to 33%), both far exceeded the credential norm for the domestic workforce (15% of males and 16% of females respectively). As Kustec et al. show in this volume, credential recognition matters disproportionately to such skilled immigrants. Within the past decade, 1.2 million immigrants have reached Canada with the intention to work. Of the one-third who hold professional qualifications, at least 50% target fields requiring some type of training or formal credential. While just 15% of Canadians work in regulated occupations, this proportion rises to 34% when we look at the landed immigrants who arrived by 1996 and 2005 and for whom intended occupation is known.