Taxi Driver Syndrome

Are immigrant professionals still driving taxis?

The answer is yes. They are also mopping floors, bagging groceries, guarding office buildings, delivering pizzas, waiting tables and working at call centres. Once in Canada, many skilled immigrants, particularly those with Indian, Caribbean, Chinese or Arab backgrounds, wind up in occupations far below their educational levels—despite having been selected for high levels of training and experience in professions such as health care, engineering and education. The problem is known as “brain waste” and some economists estimate its cost to Canada as totalling at least $3  billion a year, not to mention the ruined dreams suffered by the immigrants themselves. Countless organizations have experimented with solutions to this underemployment, with only modest effect. Now the federal government is weighing in—or, depending on your perspective, backing off—and radically changing who is arriving in Canada and what this country...