Canada becomes an attractive destination for tech professionals from India

US in danger of losing skilled labor edge to its neighbor.

By Deepak Chitnis

WASHINGTON, DC: While US immigration reform continues to flounder in the midst of political gridlock and government inefficacy, Canada may very well surge ahead of its southern neighbor as the premiere destination for Indian techies looking to leave their home country.

Canada announced recently it would introduce an overhaul of its immigration system next year, with special preference given to those emigrating from India. But a new report from The Times of India indicates that the influx of Indians to the great north has already begun, and could upend the convention thinking that the US is the IT haven of the world.

Last year, 33,000 Indians left their home country for Canada, of which about 60% were classified as “economic migrants,” meaning they came to the country for a job or some kind of financial incentive. The remaining 40% of the immigrants were families, meaning that about 13,200 people emigrated from India with their families, and just under 20,000 individuals came for work.

“Canada has welcomed generations of newcomers from India who have helped to build a pluralistic and prosperous,” said Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander, in a statement released when Canada’s new immigration procedures were announced recently.

“Our government continues to transform our immigration system into one that is fast, fair and flexible with more options than ever for permanent residency for people with the skills, talents and innovative drive that Canada needs,” Alexander added.

To take advantage of Indians coming to Canada in increasing numbers, IT giants like Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook have begun setting up big offices in that country, particularly in Vancouver. Located just two and one-half hours north of Seattle, near where Amazon and Microsoft are based, the city could become a new tech hub, essentially a Silicon Valley of the north.

In addition, Canada issued 130,000 visitor visas to Indian nationals over the course of 2013, and about 14,000 visas to Indian students coming into the country. For comparison, India sent 96,754 students to the US in 2012, according to the Institute of International Education – a much larger number than Canada’s, to be sure, but a decrease from the previous year.

Meanwhile, immigration reform in the US is all but dead for 2014, and unless Congress (specifically, the House of Representatives) becomes Democrat-dominant after November’s midterm election, it could very well not see passage in 2015, too. With the H-1B cap not rising anytime soon, and backlogs only getting longer, this is as good a time as ever for Canada to capitalize on the how unattractive the US now seems.