Thoughts on Canadian employment for New Immigrants

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Subject: Thoughts on Canadian employment for New Immigrants
  Canada is a multi-cultural society. No doubt about it. The cultural landscape of this great nation is as vast and kaleidoscopic as the United States. Yet despite its multicultural dynamism brought about by continuous flow of immigrants from all over the world, Canada has yet to give its newcomers the promise to develop their potentials. Many immigrants, educated and all, are languishing in low paying jobs. Most of these jobs are retail and labor oriented. Canada´s immigration is based on point system. A cumulative point that is based on experience, job, educational background, adaptability, among others. When I applied as a Permanent Resident under the skilled worker category, I merited the highest score under the Educational and occupational areas. My two BA´s, Diploma, Master´s degree, and occupational experience gave me the highest score. My overall score is over and beyond that the interview requirement was waived. Given my educational background, experience, and adaptability, I thought I could breeze through it all once I landed in Canada. Wrong. Like others I am faced with the difficulty of entering its white collar human resources. The difficulty lies not in my color, race, or orientation. It is a question whether I have the Canadian experience and Canadian academic background that would qualify me for the job. It is ironic that the areas where I merited the highest score during my immigration process is the challenge that impedes me to land a white collar occupation. A photo in a magazine captures it all. An Indian guy driving a taxi, his Identification Card hangs above with his name written in big black print with a Phd after it. His face paints uncertainty and shame.

There is, of course, a way to break the cycle. I have always known that the only way to enter the Canadian white collar occupation is to be equipped with a Canadian university degree. One needs to sacrifice one year or two years to go back to a Canadian school and acquire the education that Canada seeks from its human resources.

The infusion of new "blood" to Canada´s human resources is a need that is continuously being supplied by immigrants. More and more immigrants are coming in as residents. They are the oil that powers the labor intensive machine that maintains Canada´s burgeoning economy. Through the immigrants social insurance contributions, tax, and all, Canada´s ever growing number of pensioners are likely to be provided for with benefits till death.

Obviously there is a need to change the policy that questions an immigrant´s ability to work in a specialized occupation because he or she has no Canadian university degree or Canadian experience. As landed immigrants to this great nation, we have already proven our worth.


[31-08-2005,15:22]
[***.53.181.31]
Vanjobhntr
(in reply to: Thoughts on Canadian employment for New Immigrants)
Your worth doesn´t lie in just getting the Landed Immigrant Status, it lies within yourself. I always believe that if you are skilled, you can find a white collar job anywhere in the world and Canada is no exception to it.

DIfferent prople have different experiences in Canada basd on their skills, knowledge and attitude. For an instance, I´ve come across people who have been here for years and they still speak in Indian accent. I believe that accent is the biggest barrier. You get a call for the interview and you speak in an Indian accent. Interviewer can´t understand half of your words. How are you suppossed to get hired? It´s very easy to blame the system. Remember, every country and every employer seeks the best people and if you can prove yourself to them, you are there.

Above all, if someone is not happy with the hiring system or any Canadian practice, he/she has no obligation to stay here. This is very common to meet people who keep cursing Canada and would never go back to their home countries as well. What´s the point in it?

Remember, when you are dinning with the demons, you got to have big spoons.

[31-08-2005,16:48]
[***.85.9.1]
Sumit
(in reply to: Thoughts on Canadian employment for New Immigrants)
i agree with both of the posts. i find a lot of you guys are leaving good jobs to go to the uncertainty of canada. although i really don´t agree with that i won´t pretend to understand your lives nor have i had the experiences you´ve had.

for me, i´d think long and hard about leaving a well paying job to go to canada given what´s been said time and time again about the unfair employment practices. i guess you have to weigh it: do you sacrifice your job and all the years of hard work to come to canada to retrain?? is the way of life there really worth it that you´re willing to give up or put your career on hold?? for me personally, i´m wondering if it is.

i really worked hard on my two degrees so far and you´re telling me that once i get there, they´ll count for nothing?? right now i´m in the US and will be going back home once i´m out of status. i´ll probably be back home and readjusted to our lifestyle before i probably even get my interview date. i may be able to get a job at home but who knows. if i do, i doubt i´ll give that up to go to canada. nowhere on earth is worth that.

as far as the retraining goes, what are you going to do?? if you´re an engineer, what are your retraining options?? not many. life is all about decision making and 100% of the time you never have enough accurate information to make a right decision. only after the fact, do you get all the right information that you needed to make the right decision when it was decision making time. either way, we all have our decisions to make. all i can say is that once you get to canada, its probably realistic to expect a long and tumultuous "integration" period before you see any light at the end of the tunnel. are you ready for that??

[31-08-2005,18:01]
[**.35.201.52]
degen95
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