That's not a bug, it's a feature. Wealthy immigrants are more useful to a country than poor immigrants, unless those poor immigrants have a lot of promise which is most easily approximated by educational credentials.
The PhD taxi driver isn't a huge problem because it's voluntary on the part of the immigrant and usually those people send their kids to top universites.
> the PhD taxi driver isn't a huge problem because it's voluntary on the part of the immigrant
Of course it isn't voluntary. If you had a PhD would you prefer to work as a taxi driver?
It's a mix of multiple factors:
- Some masked racism (usually in form of "needs Canadian experience" meaning for most people: either you spend some time in a cashier/cleaning/etc job or you aren't getting through to us)
- Curriculum stuffing/PhDs from some smaller countries might not be worth the paper they're printed on (which should be easy to sieve in an interview - but a Canadian won't go out of the way to help you - not even a bit)
- Peculiarities of the Canadian job market (centralization depends on area/specialty, etc)
I say this as a naturalized citizen who went through this process myself a few years ago: it's our country and we can decide which people we want to let in. It's not their right, it's a privilege we provide them with the expectation that they will contribute to our society more than the average Canadian. So, yes, we cherry-pick the applicants who will most likely contribute the most.
People running away from war and famine have a different humanitarian immigration path into Canada which is not built with the expectation that they will become net contributors to our society.
>People running away from war and famine have a different humanitarian immigration path into Canada which is not built with the expectation that they will become net contributors to our society.
Or at least, not in the first few years of their stay - there is every reason to expect them to become net contributors in time, it just might take a few years longer than the point-based immigrants
The PhD taxi driver isn't a huge problem because it's voluntary on the part of the immigrant and usually those people send their kids to top universites.