Canada, the comfort of new dreams

It might seem strange but the biting cold of Canada is far more appealing to an Indian techie than the balmy beaches of Florida. And, US President Donald Trump has a lot to do with the change in preference. For one, Canada is far more inviting to immigrants than the US. Second, its flourishing science, engineering, and information technology sectors are open about recruiting Indians in highly skilled jobs of business analyst, mechanical engineer, software developer and project manager.

The numbers corroborate the shift in migration. A report from the job search engine Indeed had stated that in August 2016, six per cent of all searches originating in India for jobs outside the country were for jobs in Canada. By July 2018, that number had more than doubled to 13 per cent. 

Canada’s Express Entry Year-end Report 2017, shows a spike in Indian immigrants to the country: Out of 86,022 invitations sent in 2016, 36,310 or 42 per cent were to Indian citizens.

The fact is Canada has always been welcoming of Indians. According to Canada’s 2016 Census, Indian immigrants (668,565) were the largest foreign-born group in the country. But in the recent past, the restrictions placed by the Trump administration on immigrant tech workers holding an H-1B visa and a rising anti-immigrant sentiment in the US have forced young, enterprising Indians to look for greener pastures.

What has fuelled the dreams further is a combination of factors, including low cost of living, a profusion of tech vacancies and a robust healthcare programme. Toronto, which is coming up in a big way as the hotspot for Artificial Intelligence, has added more tech jobs in 2017 than some of the US hubs, namely the San Francisco Bay area, Seattle and Washington, DC, combined. 

Other cities like Ottawa and Montreal are home to Shopify — a publicly traded e-commerce platform valued at $14bn — and Element AI, a platform for companies to build AI solutions, respectively.

Canada also offers the added advantages of allowing spouses to work and children to study under the temporary visa. Justin Trudeau is projecting Canada as a multicultural country, where diversity is welcomed, if not cherished. Canada has also laid the red carpet for companies with strategies like quick work permit exemption and fast application processing time. It takes as little as two weeks to process visa applications.

Canada is making hay while the sun shines. In other words, making the most of America’s ignorance of the brain drain that is currently underway. It is in the game for the long haul. The government of Canada has built formal science and technology relationships and partnerships with both established and emerging innovation networks around the world. 

The Canada-South Korea and the Canada-Japan relationships in Asia and the Canada-France and Canada-Germany collaborations in Europe have gathered momentum. 

Forget USA! Canada is the new land of dreams that is attracting some of the best talents from India.