A surge in temporary immigration — particularly the rise in foreign students — has contributed to lower wages and job losses for Canadian-born workers in certain sectors, according to new research from the Bank of Canada.Blacklock's Reporter says the report, The Shift In Canadian Immigration Composition And Its Effects On Wages, found that non-permanent residents, including more than a million foreign students, increasingly filled low-skilled jobs once held by Canadians. “They accounted for a larger share of workers in low-skilled occupations, replacing Canadian-born workers who moved out of these jobs,” the study concluded. Many of these workers were foreign students, most commonly from India.The research supports earlier findings from the Department of Employment, which warned that foreign labour could have a “significant” impact on domestic wages and employment in certain industries.Since 2015, the composition of newcomers to Canada has shifted sharply. Non-permanent residents, once a minor share of immigration, have become the primary source of population growth. “Public data suggest this surge in temporary immigration mostly reflects a sharp rise in the international mobility program work permits, which are generally granted without any requirement for labour market impact assessments, and a pickup in international study permits,” the bank report stated.As of 2023, Immigration Canada reported 2.3 million foreign nationals in the country, including 1,040,985 foreign students, 766,250 migrant workers, and 471,550 landed immigrants. The bank noted that between 2015 and 2024, temporary foreign workers tended to be younger, less experienced, and increasingly arrived from lower-income countries. At the same time, their representation in skilled occupations declined.Researchers found that in 2024, 16.4% of non-permanent resident workers were studying either part-time or full-time, up from 9.8% in 2014. Their wages were typically 22.6% lower than those of Canadian-born workers, further intensifying concerns over wage suppression.The impact of this shift has been especially noticeable in sectors like accommodation and food services, business and building support, and retail.“Reliance on temporary workers has increased across all sectors,” said the report, “but the gain has been particularly acute in certain industries.”The bank’s findings echoed a 2022 evaluation by the Department of Employment, which cited wage suppression and job displacement risks in sectors such as construction, trucking, restaurants, beauty salons, and fish processing — fields where foreign labour was willing to work for wages below levels acceptable to Canadian citizens or permanent residents.“This points to some risk of job displacement or wage suppression in some specific sectors, occupations and regions,” the department’s Evaluation Of The Temporary Foreign Worker Program warned.Together, the studies suggest Canada’s recent immigration strategy — driven heavily by temporary entrants — may be reshaping labour markets in ways that disadvantage domestic workers.
