Canada, like many other wealthy countries, wants to attract the best and brightest from developing nations.
The promise? Bring your education and skills and the jobs are waiting. In particular, the Canadian government has been encouraging highly skilled and highly educated immigrants.
In a major speech in September, Prime Minister Paul Martin put heavy emphasis on the need to increase immigration levels to combat an aging population, low birth rate and a shortage of skills.
"We need immigrants," said Martin. "Quite frankly we need more and we need them to succeed."
But can we really accommodate more? What about the tens of thousands already here?
Many who came with dreams of a better life find it impossible to work in their chosen profession and complain of a system that offers little help to allow them to practice their skills.
Federal government documents obtained by W-FIVE show that skilled immigrants are shunning Canada. In 2000, Canadian embassies and consulates abroad received more than 300,000 immigrant skilled worker visa applications. But in 2004 that number declined to only 177,000.
Even more dramatic is the fall in skilled worker applications from China (including Hong Kong), which dropped from 60,000 in 2000 to only 8,000 in 2004