The positive effects of immigration on business productivity
According to a new study released by Statistics Canada entitled “Immigration and Firm Productivity: Evidence from the Canadian Employer-Employee Dynamics Database,” an increase in the share of immigrant workers in a firm is associated with an increase in labour productivity at the firm level in Canada. The effects of immigrants on business productivity varied considerably across immigrant characteristics and industry sectors. The effect was stronger among low-skilled or less educated immigrants compared to high-skilled or university-educated workers. These differences were more pronounced in technology-intensive and knowledge-based industries. The relatively small effect of high-skilled or university-educated immigrants on productivity is consistent with previous empirical research in Canada, which found that recent immigrants with a university degree earned similar wages to those with a university degree. Canadian-born workers with only a high school diploma, and that more than half of recent immigrants with a university education in STEM fields were not working in STEM occupations and tended to work in low-skilled jobs.
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