That is a good question. I don't think we have completely finished studying the relationship among immigrants, literacy and employability. The literacy assessment we conducted was in Canada's official languages — that is, English and French. However, there is no doubt that most immigrants have neither English nor French as their mother tongue. They are thus at a disadvantage when we assess their literacy. Practically speaking, we assess their literacy in English or in French, as they prefer, but we do not assess their literacy level in their first language.
We have not yet completed the studies, but some do show the following: even when the language factor is taken into account, it appears that, at an equivalent education level, immigrants have lower literacy scores than Canadians. Immigrants who arrive in Canada are very well educated. I believe that 60 to 65 per cent of recent immigrants have successfully completed post-secondary studies, but it appears that their understanding and ability to properly assimilate written information is weaker than those of Canadians. However, there is still a great deal to be done in analyzing the results of these studies.