{"id":299264,"date":"2025-11-22T08:37:47","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T08:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/299264\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T08:37:47","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T08:37:47","slug":"over-a-third-of-immigrant-healthcare-workers-leave-after-five-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/299264\/","title":{"rendered":"Over a third of immigrant healthcare workers leave after five years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Source: Rawpixel<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s immigration system is failing to keep vital medical professionals, with a shocking new study revealing that over a third of immigrant healthcare workers quit and leave the country within five years of arrival.<\/p>\n

A new study by the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC), an immigrant advocacy group, reveals that Canada\u2019s retention rate of new immigrants has worsened for the third consecutive year. The third annual \u201cLeaky Bucket 2025<\/a>: Retention Challenges in Highly Skilled Immigrants and In-Demand Occupations\u201d study shows a worsening trend.<\/p>\n

The ICC warns that if current \u201conward migration\u201d trends persist, 5.3 per cent of the 380,000 permanent residents who arrive in Canada in 2026, or 20,241 immigrants, will leave the country by 2031.<\/p>\n

The study\u2019s authors note that immigrants with PhDs are nearly twice as likely to leave as those with a bachelor\u2019s degree, and higher-skilled immigrants are twice as likely to leave as lower-skilled immigrants.<\/p>\n

Immigrant healthcare workers and scientists both have a 36 per cent departure rate after five years, the study found.<\/p>\n

\u201cSix and a half million people lack a family doctor. Who loses when immigrant healthcare professionals decide to leave?\u201d Daniel Bernhard, the CEO of the ICC, told<\/a> reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday. \u201cEven those who want lower immigration should support better retention. The immigrant who stays is the immigrant who doesn\u2019t have to be replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report also found that executives left at the five-year mark at a rate nearly three times above the average onward migration rate.<\/p>\n

The ICC recommends Canada develop a \u201cnational retention policy framework\u201d to set targets, track immigrant performance after admission, and guide immigration policy with a focus on retention.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanada grows older and weaker and poorer and less interesting. When talented immigrants from around the world decide to leave, it\u2019s time for a national retention framework,\u201d Bernhard said. \u201cIRCC currently has zero staff devoted to retaining the people that their colleagues work so hard to recruit. This obviously has to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group also called for \u201csupports tailored to highly skilled immigrants,\u201d including bridging programs, licensing pathways, and \u201cpersonalized settlement plans\u201d to remove commonly cited barriers to staying in the country.<\/p>\n

Last month, during a House of Commons health committee meeting, several groups representing internationally trained doctors testified<\/a> about various licensing barriers, including red tape, training capacity limits, and costs.<\/p>\n

One doctor, Therese Bichay, the director of Internationally Trained Physicians in Canada, said many internationally trained physicians are leaving Canada for places that respect their knowledge and experience and allow them to work, including the U.S., U.K., and Australia.<\/p>\n

The ICC report also called on the federal government to implement \u201ctargeted retention strategies\u201d for occupations in high demand in Canada. They called for \u201cemployer incentives,\u201d enhanced credential recognition, and \u201cstronger employment-related settlement services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, the immigration advocacy group recommended enhancing employer capacity, mentorship, and career development support to \u201cimprove immigrant retention\u2014especially in smaller communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cimmigration is not just a favour that we do to immigrants. It\u2019s a service that we do to ourselves. We really need this talent, not just in healthcare, but in engineering and construction,\u201d Bernhard said. \u201cThis is an advantage for Canada, and this report hopefully emphasizes the level of talent that is coming here, the degree of benefit that we stand to reap if we can retain this talent enthusiastically to play for our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Share<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Source: Rawpixel Canada\u2019s immigration system is failing to keep vital medical professionals, with a shocking new study revealing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-299264","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}