According to a recent Statistics Canada survey, 58% of internationally educated healthcare professionals (IEHPs) in Canada who trained to be nurses, doctors, pharmacists, or dentists were working in their sector.
According to the report, 76% of the 259,694 IEHPs in Canada were employed (compared to 80% of Canadian-educated healthcare professionals). This data set covers IEHPs who do not work in a healthcare occupation.
According to data from Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), immigrants account for one-quarter of healthcare employees, a figure that is predicted to climb as 500,000 healthcare workers reach the age of 55 and retire over the next decade.
According to Statistics Canada, half of all IEHPs in Canada immigrated during their core working years, between the ages of 25 and 34, and roughly one-third of all IEHPs arrived recently (between 2016 and 2021). In all, two-thirds of IEHPs were under the age of 50. It was also discovered that 7 out of 10 IEHPs in Canada were women.
Where do they settle?
Ontario had the most IEHPs (116,310), followed by British Columbia (45,235) and Alberta (42,035).
The northern territories and the Atlantic provinces of Canada had the fewest IEHPs. With 475, Prince Edward Island had the fewest, followed by the three territories with 605. There were 3,195 IEHPs in Nova Scotia.
Where did they study?
According to the survey, 63% of IEHPs acquired their education in Asia, whereas 11% studied in an English-speaking Western country. Asian-educated IEHPs made up 75% of IEHPs in Manitoba, whereas 21% of IEHPs in New Brunswick had studied in an English-speaking Western country.
What are their jobs?
According to Statistics Canada, one-third of IEHPs in Canada studied nursing. Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses (34%), nursing aides, orderlies, and patient service associates (21%), licensed practical nurses (8%), light duty cleaners (2%), and social and community service workers (2%), were the top five vocations. Over half of the IEHPs in Prince Edward Island have a nursing background.
Physician-trained IEHPs made for 15% of all IEHPs in Canada, with the majority residing in Newfoundland and Labrador. The province also has the greatest total proportion of IEHPs working in health vocations (74% of all IEHPs in the province).
Although Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan had high employment rates for IEHPs working in a healthcare occupation (over 65%), the rest of Canada had only 46% of IEHPs working in a health occupation.
Healthcare workers are in short supply.
According to Statistics Canada’s most recent job vacancy data, there were 147,100 job openings in June of this year.
According to the IEHP report, given the vast number of IEHPs in Canada, there are many immigrants in the country who could assist to addressing labor shortages in the health workforce.
The difficulty in obtaining a license in a regulated profession in Canada is one of the primary factors of IEHPs not finding work in their sector. Each province in Canada has its own regulatory agency, with differing criteria for healthcare practitioners.
Nonetheless, provinces are taking steps to reduce barriers for IEHPs. For example, Nova Scotia currently provides an expedited pathway to practice as a registered nurse in the Philippines, India, Nigeria, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, or New Zealand for international nurses who are registered and hold a current license.
Furthermore, Ontario has introduced several new pieces of legislation, including the requirement that health regulatory colleges adhere to time limits when making registration decisions and the prohibition on health regulatory colleges requiring Canadian work experience for the purpose of registration (with some exceptions).
IRCC has also established six new Express Entry categories that choose Express Entry candidates based on their vocation rather than their complete ranking system (CRS) score. So far in 2023, 2,000 Invitations to Apply (ITAs) have been sent to people working in healthcare.
In addition, in October 2022, IRCC made it feasible for physicians who are already working in Canada as temporary residents to apply for Express Entry. This was previously not allowed because most physicians were considered self-employed.
