America and Canada have a looming labor shortage, with the two countries taking different approaches to counter the problem. In less than ten years, there will be one retiree for every worker in Canada.
Same Problem Different Reactions
To counter the looming labor shortage crisis, the Canadian government plans to accept 1.45 million immigrant workers by 2025. Sixty percent of these workers will fill the gap in the healthcare sector, while the remaining forty percent will be spread in other sectors in dire need of labor.
On the other hand, due to partisan politics, the U.S. has seen laws aimed at opening up the country for skilled immigrants stall. While the Democrats are for the country’s opening up for a skilled labor force, the Republicans have been demanding the fixing of the southern border as a condition for their support.
In the fiscal year 2022, only around 275,000 legal employment-based immigrants came into America, a smaller number than Canada seeks to bring in each year for the next three years, yet America’s population is ten times that of Canada.
The Difference Is in the Politics
In the session of congress that ended in December 2022, bills were aimed at allowing more foreign entrepreneurs, microchip manufacturers, highly skilled workers, and farm workers in the country failed to garner enough votes to become law.
The best performer of this kind was the Farm Workhouse Modernization Act, which barely made it out of the house with 30 Republicans and one Democrat opposing it. But, the bill still has a long way to go since it has to go through a vote in the Senate.
Things are much easier across the Canadian border. The two major political parties, the ruling Liberals and the opposition’s Conservatives, describe themselves as pro-immigration. While both parties have different views on many issues, immigration is not as emotive in Canada as it is in America, making policy changes and implementation much easier.
Policy Overhaul Long Overdue
The last major overhaul to the American immigration policy was in 1990. Meanwhile, Canada has been working towards flexibility in immigration to match changing demands.
“Canada’s policies towards immigration are based on the belief among Canadians that they need more people for economic and demographic reasons. America needs more skilled labor too, but as long as partisan politics precedes what is good for the country, our country will keep pushing top talent elsewhere,” says Attorney Zaira Solano of Solano Law Firm LLC.
Even as Canada takes a welcoming approach to immigration, many jobs still remain unfilled. According to the University Health Network’s Nursing Strategy Senior Director Brenda Perkins-Meingast, her hospital network alone is 400 to 500 short on nurses. The network has already begun a program to bring in internationally trained nurses to fill these gaps and implement plans to offer additional training where necessary.
The Impact Will Be Felt
At some point, America will feel the impact of labor shortages in high-end and low-end labor markets if it doesn’t take the same approach as Canada in welcoming legal migrant workers. According to Rebecca Shi of the American Immigration Business Coalition, with time, the prices of basic commodities such as food will have to go up if farmers do not have enough workers.
The Biden administration, through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, maintains that it is committed to doing all in its power to ensure that eligible people seeking immigration in America get the help they deserve. But until American politicians quit politics with serious issues such as immigration, the agency’s efforts may not amount to much since it can only operate within the law.
