By Sandy M. Fernandez Immigrants are supposed to be a mainstay of Canada's well-being in the decades ahead. In the long run, those parts of the world could be competing directly with the U.S. and Canada for talent. In some cases they already are.
Immigrants can choose to stay home because their own economies are growing, often rapidly.
In the 1990s, Hong Kong was Canada's third largest source of skilled immigrants, sending more than 14,000 of its college graduates here from 1991 to 1996. But the numbers won't be the same in the future. Hong Kong's economy has switched from finance and real estate to a knowledge base. The government has helped that along with matching loans to entrepreneurs, funds for research and development, cooperation between business and academia, and increased training programs for homegrown information-technology talent. In fact, Hong Kong expects to have a shortfall of 4,800 IT graduates this year and up to 14,000 by the year 2005.