For example if Canadian employers are sensitive about the age of job applicants and do not recruit aged people, how will one know if one can have a successful beginning in a new country? Let me explain this in more detail.
The first thing we can refer to in order to find the answer to such a question is the viewpoints of the governments that accept immigrants based on a set of programs. Is age an important factor for the Canadian federal government and the Quebec government?
The answer is obvious: Yes. Even with a glance at the scoring policy for accepting immigrants which is the abstract of the crystallization of the Canadian planners’ thoughts about immigration, it is clearly shown that age is considered an important factor. Since the scoring system is a composite system and some of its components affect others, we should analyze it more carefully.
For instance in the federal system, if you - as the main applicant - are 21 to 49 years old, you will automatically receive the highest score of ten points. Therefore in the federal government’s viewpoint, 49 years of age is not too late for immigrating to Canada. Realistically it is not even late after the age of 49, but when a 49-year old receives the highest score it shows that this age is still assumed ideal for starting a new life in a different country.
However this is just one side of the story so we must also have a closer look at other parameters. In the same scoring system, you will receive the highest score for education if you have at least one Masters' degree. In a best case scenario, if a person continues his studies without any interruption and receives all his degrees completely and without any delays in between (which is uncommon anywhere in the world), he will need at least seven years to complete his studies in Masters and to enter the (full-time) labour market. In this best case scenario, he can enter the labour market 25 to 26 years of age.
He must then have worked at least 4 years in the specialized field, required by the Canadian government, in order to get the highest score for a job (the ideal job conditions in Canadian government's viewpoint). Everybody - including Canadian managers – are aware that it is not that simple to achieve that level of professionalism immediately after finishing studies and that the candidate should work as an apprentice at least one year in a related field so that he can settle in such a field. This period is longer based on Canadian standards for some more technical jobs such as accounting.
Among those occupations are those such as the job of doctors or university professors which require more studying. Successful beginning of careers in such fields are also clearly most often combined with natural delays.
We should also add about one and a half to two years of military services in Iran for men (who are the main applicants for immigration in families) when there is no guarantee for them to work in fields related to their education. Performing military service is completely accepted by the Canadian government and if a man did not do so, he has to provide justified and documented reasons or the examination of his immigration case will face some severe problems.
With these calculations, if somebody continues to study without interruptions and completes his studies, he will be about 32 to 34 years of age. It is obvious that there is no need for a person to get his Masters degree or to have four years of work experience in order to receive the required scores. However we are talking about the formal viewpoints of the Canadian immigration officials about an ideal person for immigration.
As you can see in the view point of the federal government, 34 to 35 years of age is not late for immigration, but is instead more appropriately matched with the ideal age. This age is at least 40 years for doctors and university professors. It means that based on what has been mentioned and with examining other scores, the Canadian government prefers educated people of 35 to 50 years of age who have educated spouses. Other factors such as work experience, education, or having a close relative in Canada are indeed secondary and exceptional scores, but the ideal is what has been previously discussed. In fact despite what is commonly said between us or what immigrants think when faced with problems and obstacles in the first years after their immigration, the notion of “If I had immigrated when I was 20, I would have been more successful” is not compliant with what the Canadian government thinks.
Today with developing new policies focused on the needs of the Canadian labor market, the government has shown that it needs more people in the latter half of their youth and maybe on the threshold of becoming middle-aged - with more maturity in character, work and family life - versus young people who are still at the beginning stages of their life.
But do Canadian employers think the same way? What do facts regarding the labour market state? How much do the characteristics and behaviour of the immigrant affect the effectiveness of the parameter of age? We will talk more about these issues later.
PS: New changes in federal skilled workers selection system shows that the federal government is going to follow its rival Quebecer.