Living in Canada vs USA?

Immigration policy and job prospects in Canada vs. Great Britain vs. USA

• From reading many of hummer-ga's Google Answers regarding Canadian immigration policy, I feel pretty familiar with how I can immigrate to Canada from the U.S. But how does the Canadian immigration policy compare with British immigration policy? Is it also a point-based system? I would love to live in either Canada or Britain, but my preference is Britain. Also, because Canada's head of state is the British Queen, does that mean that Canadian citizens can move to the Britain as easily as an American can move from one state to another? A little background on me: I'm a 25-year old currently working on a master's degree in Library and Information science. I will have one year of library-related job experience when I graduate in 2 years. What are jobs prospects like for public librarians in Canada vs. the United States vs. Great Britain? And how do salaries compare?

• Answer:

  Hello hotpatatta, Thank you for your question. Canada does function on the same type of points system that Britain does for highly skilled workers. A points calculator can be found here: Canada Skilled Worker Program http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/skilled/qual-1.html You'll need 67 points in order to emigrate to Canada, and for the UK you'll need 75 points. It would be more difficult to get a job with a public library in Canada than it would in the US. The United States has thousands upon thousands of public libraries, and Canada does not have nearly that number, because it has a much smaller population and fewer towns and cities. Speaking French would be an asset (or a requirement even) in certain parts of Canada and would not matter in the US. Public librarians in Canada are usually hired from a pool of already-hired on-call librarians and entry-level positions that are not already spoken for can be hard to come by. In 2004, a CBC reporter named Alisa Siegel did a special report called "Exodus Libris" regarding the large number of Canadian librarians who move to America to get public library jobs. A link to an audio file of the broadcast is on this page of CANLIB, Canadian Librarians in America: Need a Job? http://library3.csudh.edu/cdales/canlib/CanLib%20Need%20a%20Job.html Salaries for US librarians usually increase every year, although not always at the rate of inflation. In 2004, the average US starting salary for a new Library and Information Science graduate was $39,079, an increase of slightly less than inflation from 2003. About 92% of graduates that year responding to a survey at the end of the year had jobs. 78.5% of those employed had full-time positions and 14.1% had part-time jobs. Less than 1% of the graduates held two part-time jobs in order to equal the pay of one full-time job. The average starting salary for public libaries was $35,505 for women and $34,825 for men. Canadian university librarians have a median salary of $52,707. The US university median was $55,600. (Both figures are in American dollars.) The last time the Canadian figure exceeded the US median was in 1996-7. It seems clear that on average, librarians in the US make more than their Canadian counterparts. The average hourly salary for a librarian in Canada is $19.93, which is higher than the national Canadian average but much lower than the average US starting salary. Job prospects for librarians are rated FAIR on the Canadian Job Futures site: Librarians' Job Prospects http://jobfutures.ca/noc/511p3.shtml In addition, the federal government pay rates for Canadian librarians are very low: Canadian Government Librarian Salaries http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/coll_agre/table5-9_e.asp#a4 US federal government librarians' average salaries were $74,630 as of 2005. That is quite a difference in pay. US librarians make nearly twice as much as their Canadian counterparts. In the US, median public librarian salaries are at $42,500 as of the latest data, for 2004-2005. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos068.htm#outlook In Britain, public librarians' salaries range from £18,460 to £21,587. In US dollars, that's $36,063-42,172. As you can see, the top of that range is less than the median for US salaries; US salaries are much higher. Senior management positions can earn something in the range of £25,450 - £34,850, which is $49,719 - 68,083. This is not nearly as much as in the US, where senior public librarians in urban or populated areas can earn over $100,000 for great jobs. Like in Canada, there are simply not as many public libraries in the UK as there are in the US. However, job prospects in this profession are much better than in Canada. Jobs are available mostly from cities and towns in a public librarian capacity. Sources: Library Journal "Closing the Gap?Placements and Salaries 2004" October 15, 2005 http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6269428.html ARL-- Association of Research Librarians http://www.arl.org/newsltr/240/salary.html UK Prospects http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/Explore_types_of_jobs/Types_of_Job/p!eipaL?state=showocc&idno=341&pageno=2 Canadian Librarian Hourly Wages http://jobfutures.ca/noc/511p4.shtml CLA-- Librarian Information http://www.cla.ca/careers/careerinfo.htm CILIP Public Librarians' Guide http://www.cilip.org.uk/jobscareers/salaryguides/plsg.htm Web Journal of SLA Western Canadian Chapter http://units.sla.org/chapter/cwcn/wwest/v7n3/news.shtml Search terms: immigration us to canada points librarians average salary 2005 librarians canada average salary 2005 canada public librarians salary uk public librarian salary exodus libris alisa siegel If you need any additional clarification, let me know and I'll be glad to assist you. --keystroke-ga