IMMIGRANT INCOMES AND CREDIT

Auteurs-es

  • Robert Falconer University of Calgary

DOI :

https://doi.org/10.11575/sppp.v14i1.73284

Résumé

Immigrants to Canada earn more the longer they live here. Their incomes are also influenced by factors including official language fluency, immigration category, and racial discrimination. In this article we address one factor – access to affordable credit.

Immigrants consume almost half of their savings in moving to Canada. This can leave little leftover to pay for recertification or licensing fees. Newcomers with professional accreditations earned outside Canada who cannot recertify or become licensed on their arrival often find work that is not commensurate with their training. This is a loss to both immigrants and those born in Canada who might benefit from their skills. Small, low-interest loans, or “microcredit” may be one way to achieve faster certification.

The figure on the right shows data from Windmill Microlending, a registered charity providing microloans to immigrants. Red dots represent the income of an immigrant loan recipients (red) and non-recipients (green) measured against their time in Canada. The lines show the average rise in pay for immigrants the longer they live in Canada. On average, loan recipients receive a 26% increase in income following disbursement and a faster rate of increase in income over time.

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Publié-e

2021-09-28

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Communiqués