International doctoral students face a tough job market

Although Canada has more than doubled the number of international PhD candidates studying here in the past five years, highly educated immigrants face worse job prospects than their Canadian-born counterparts. This is likely to cause many to leave the country in the long term.

In the 2010-11 academic year, 1,395 of 5,907 PhD candidates (nearly 24%) were international students, according to Statistics Canada.

This marks a significant jump from previous years: while the number of international and domestic PhD students has been steadily growing since 2005, the proportion of those from abroad consistently hovered around 13%, but in the two years up to 2010-11, the ratio nearly doubled.

This dramatic increase in doctoral degree hopefuls coincided with the creation of an ambitious programme intended to attract the world’s brightest talent to Canada. The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship scheme was launched in 2009 and offered $50,000, three-year scholarships to up to 500 new PhD candidates a year.

So far, 660 scholarships have been awarded: 164 to students from Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States.

The government also changed the immigration rules to attract doctoral students to Canada so that from November 2011, PhD students could apply for permanent residency through the Federal Skilled Worker Programme, with the government pledging to accept up to 1,000 applicants annually.

Challenging job market

But, despite efforts to lure talent, highly educated immigrants continue to face a more challenging job search than Canadian-born applicants.

Foreign PhDs who graduated in 2005 were less likely than Canadian-born graduates to have definite plans for employment or post-doctoral studies after graduation. And those who did find a job earned about $5,000 less annually than their Canadian-born peers.

Tracking international doctoral graduates is complicated by the fact that many become landed immigrants before graduating. Of those foreign-born PhDs who graduated in 2005, 70% had become a Canadian citizen by 2007.

A 2011 report for the Ministry of Industry addressed concerns about where graduates lived and worked after their doctoral studies. A fifth of all doctoral students intended to leave Canada after completing their degree, with 57% planning to move to the US.

The ratio of Canada-born and foreign-born PhD graduates living in Canada was comparable to that of those living in the US, suggesting that international PhD holders do not leave Canada at a different rate than domestic graduates within two years of graduation.

But there is evidence that in the long term, foreign-born PhD graduates are more likely to leave Canada. A 2008 Ryerson University study reported that 40% of immigrants who enter Canada as part of the skilled labour or business class left within 10 years.

A cursory review of media coverage of the issue suggests that, anecdotally, many immigrants leave after years of frustration with underemployment, income disparity and weak prospects for advancement. The OECD backs up this thesis: only 60% of highly skilled immigrants hold positions that require highly skilled workers.

While it is unclear if foreign-born PhDs fare differently than other immigrants, it seems likely they face similar discrimination when applying for jobs.

A study by University of Toronto economist Philip Oreopoulos sheds light on the problem. He sent thousands of resumés to posted job openings and found that applicants with an anglophone name were twice as likely to receive a response as those with a Chinese or Indian name.