New census data reveals immigrants are driving London's most critical sectors—from construction to healthcare to tech innovation
On This Page You Will Find:
- Shocking data revealing who's really building London's homes and infrastructure
- The surprising truth about healthcare workers keeping our hospitals running
- Why recent immigrants are driving London's tech and innovation boom
- The "waiting room" problem costing our economy millions in untapped talent
- What this means for London's survival as a competitive city
Summary:
When your house needs building or your bone needs setting in London, you're increasingly turning to an immigrant. New census data from the London & Middlesex Local Immigration Partnership reveals that newcomers aren't just filling job gaps—they're actively engineering, building, and healing our entire economy. While London faces housing shortages and healthcare wait times, immigrants are statistically more likely to work in construction (17% vs 15%) and healthcare (12% vs 9%) than Canadian-born residents. The most striking trend? Science and engineering roles among recent immigrants have doubled to 14%, perfectly timing London's tech boom. This isn't about charity—it's about survival strategy.
🔑 Key Takeaways:
- Immigrants are MORE likely to work in construction trades (17% vs 15%) during London's housing crisis
- 12% of employed immigrants work in healthcare compared to just 9% of non-immigrants
- Science and engineering roles among recent immigrants doubled from 7% to 14% since 1980
- Many highly skilled newcomers are underemployed in "survival jobs" while navigating credential recognition
- London's economic future depends on retaining these builders, healers, and innovators
Maria Santos stared at the job posting on her laptop screen at 11 PM, her engineering degree from Colombia gathering dust on the shelf behind her. After 18 months in London, she was still working retail while trying to get her credentials recognized. She didn't know it yet, but she was part of a massive wave quietly reshaping London's entire economy.
If you've ever wondered who's actually building London's future, the answer might surprise you. It's not just the Canadian-born workforce struggling to keep up with demand—it's newcomers like Maria who are disproportionately filling the most critical roles our city desperately needs.
New data from the London & Middlesex Local Immigration Partnership shatters the myth that immigrants are simply "plugging holes" in our economy. The reality? They're engineering, building, and healing it from the ground up.
The Builders: More Than Just Moving Boxes
Here's a statistic that should grab every housing-anxious Londoner's attention: immigrants in our city are actually MORE likely to work in trades and transport (17%) than people born in Canada (15%).
Think about that for a moment. While Ontario scrambles to build 1.5 million new homes, London's immigrant workforce is statistically heavier on the builders than our local population.
This isn't about immigrants taking jobs—it's about immigrants creating the infrastructure we all depend on. Whether they're framing the houses going up in Byron or moving materials to construction sites along the 401 corridor, London's physical growth is literally being shouldered by newcomers.
The next time you drive past a new subdivision or see a crane downtown, remember: there's a good chance the people making it happen weren't born here. And thank goodness for that, because without them, our housing crisis would be even worse.
The Healers: Keeping Us Alive and Well
If the construction numbers surprised you, wait until you hear about healthcare.
A staggering 12% of all employed immigrants in London work in health occupations, compared to just 9% of non-immigrants. That's a 33% higher rate of healthcare workers among newcomers.
This goes way beyond doctors and nurses (though many of them are immigrants too). We're talking about the entire ecosystem of care—Personal Support Workers in long-term care homes, lab technicians processing your blood work, physiotherapy assistants helping you recover from surgery.
When politicians talk about "healthcare capacity," they're really talking about human capacity. This data confirms what many of us suspected: immigrants are the reinforcements keeping our hospitals and clinics from collapsing under demand.
The face of care in London has changed, and it's increasingly the face of someone who chose to make this city their home. They're the 12% dedicated to healing the rest of us.
The Engineers: A 100% Innovation Explosion
Here's where the data gets really exciting. For immigrants who arrived before 1980, only 7% worked in natural and applied sciences. For those arriving between 2016 and 2021? That number has doubled to 14%.
This isn't coincidence—it's perfect timing. London's post-2016 boom in tech, advanced manufacturing, and health innovation created demand for exactly these skills. As our region pivoted toward agri-food technology, digital media, and medical research, the immigrant workforce pivoted with it.
These aren't just any jobs. We're talking about engineers, software developers, data scientists, and researchers. They're the architects of London's transformation from a traditional manufacturing city to an innovation hub that competes globally.
The Maria Santos working retail? She's probably got the engineering skills to help design the smart city infrastructure London needs for the next decade. The question is whether we'll unlock that potential before she gets frustrated and moves to Toronto.
The Waiting Room: Our Biggest Missed Opportunity
But here's where the story gets complicated. While recent arrivals (2016-2021) are most likely to work in STEM fields (14%), they're also most likely to be working in sales and service (24%) and stuck in casual (12%) or temporary (9%) employment.
Welcome to what I call "The Waiting Room"—a cohort of highly educated, motivated newcomers who are dramatically underemployed while they navigate credential recognition or hunt for that crucial first "Canadian experience" opportunity.
This represents massive untapped potential for London. These are engineers working retail, nurses working as personal care aids, and software developers delivering food. They're already here, already housed, and ready to contribute at their skill level.
If we could solve the credential recognition bottleneck and create clearer pathways for permanent residents to access professional roles, we'd unlock a reserve of talent that could improve our economy overnight.
The Real Estate Reality Check
Let's connect this to something every Londoner feels personally: housing. You know those new developments sprouting up everywhere from Westmount to White Oaks? The data suggests they're disproportionately being built by the same demographic that's moving into them.
It's a fascinating economic cycle: immigrants arrive, many of them join the trades workforce, they build housing (including for other newcomers), and they drive demand for the healthcare and tech services that other immigrants are providing.
This isn't a burden on our infrastructure—it's a self-reinforcing economic engine. The question is whether we're managing it wisely or letting bureaucratic barriers waste the potential.
What This Means for You
Whether you were born here or arrived yesterday, these trends affect your daily life in concrete ways:
If you need healthcare: The immigrant workforce is keeping wait times from being even worse than they are. Without that 12% healthcare contribution, our system would be in crisis mode.
If you need housing: Immigrants aren't just competing for homes—they're building them at higher rates than the general population.
If you work in tech or innovation: Your newest colleagues are increasingly likely to be recent immigrants with latest skills from global markets.
If you're worried about economic competitiveness: London's ability to attract and retain skilled immigrants is directly tied to our ability to compete with Toronto, Vancouver, and international cities for talent and investment.
The Retention Challenge
Here's the uncomfortable truth: this data shows what London could become, not what it's guaranteed to remain. These skilled newcomers have options. Toronto and Vancouver are always recruiting. The U.S. tech sector is always hiring. Other Canadian cities are developing their own attraction strategies.
If we don't solve the credential recognition delays, if we don't create clearer pathways from survival jobs to professional roles, if we don't build the welcoming community that helps families thrive—we'll lose this talent advantage.
The engineers will move to Kitchener-Waterloo. The healthcare workers will go where they're valued. The builders will follow the construction booms to other cities.
The Bottom Line
The data from the London & Middlesex Local Immigration Partnership shifts the entire conversation about immigration in our city. It's no longer about whether newcomers can integrate into our economy—they're already driving its most critical sectors.
The burden of proof has flipped. The question isn't whether immigrants can contribute to London's success. The question is whether London can create the conditions to keep them contributing here instead of somewhere else.
If immigrants are statistically more likely to be building our homes and healing our sick, then retaining them isn't just about being welcoming—it's about survival. London's economic future isn't being supported by immigrants; it's being engineered, built, and healed by them.
The choice is ours: we can recognize this reality and build systems to maximize it, or we can watch our competitive advantage pack up and move to cities that figured it out first.
