Plus one. My parents experience as well in Montreal. My dad could not understand why Canada bothered to move him and his family and the keep him on welfare. BTW - life on welfare in Canada was 5 times better than life as an electrical engineer in România. My parents never stopped thinking it was a really good idea to migrate to Canada.

How do people get by when that happens? If you have no job after a period of time, what are your options?

He tutors math and science, my aunt (who also has a graduate degree) works in a daycare. Canadian welfare is also quite generous.

Their son is doing well, but I don’t see how it makes economic sense for Canada at that point. It boils down to a circuitous and expensive way to direct government dollars to smart people who are likely to have smart kids. You could save yourself a step and just give lower income kids in Canada IQ tests and throw money at the promising ones.

> I don’t see how it makes economic sense for Canada at that point

It doesn't.

Look at immigration numbers from 2000 to 2026 and overlay them with productivity per capita and GDP per capita.

I know it's not exactly the same. But would he consider becoming an electrician? Trade jobs are definitely getting more and more in demand, and the pay once established is definitely not worse than most engineer positions. Electricians in major canadian areas (e.g. Vancouver) charge 200$ per hour and more.

That's 2+ years of full-time school. Residential electrical work has little to do with electrical engineering.

The big problem is that when issuing immigrant visas, the Canadian government uses a point system (age, degree, etc.) that never actually checks for employability. In other words, it doesn't ask, "Is someone willing to pay Canadian wages for these skills and credentials?"

The federal government will give extra points to an applicant with an engineering degree without ever bothering to check whether the immigrant's degree would be accepted by an accredited licensing board.

In some cases, it's possible to get accredited by passing a series of exams (the same ones given to 22-year-old new grads). Figuring out why the pass rates are so low for foreign applicants without a mutually recognized degree is left as an exercise for the reader...