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Burgeoning research literature, commissioned studies, court rulings, and media reports have repeatedly sounded alarm bells on the continuing employment inequities for Canadian immigrants, especially visible minority populations; some even debunking popular notions of immigrants lacking sound education or language skills. Yet, little has changed in terms of inequitable outcomes and in the face of bleak job realities; the very best immigrants head south or go elsewhere for better economic prospects.
The recent findings of the July 18 Statistics Canada study entitled, “The Canadian Immigrant Labour Market in 2007: Analysis by Region of Post-Secondary Education,” reveals higher jobless rates for new immigrants irrespective of their level of education.

According to the report, immigrants educated in Western countries such as the U.S. (77.8 per cent), and Europe (73.8 per cent), had higher rates of employment than immigrants from other countries like Asia (65.5 per cent), Latin America (59.7 per cent) and Africa (50.9 per cent). The report attributes the low employment outcomes for immigrants from the latter two countries to the large number of refugees, albeit highly-educated, who are lacking appropriate documentation.
Highlights of the report reflect the endless barriers and the oft-mentioned Catch-22 situation for new immigrants. New immigrants arrive in Canada based on their educational qualifications (under the independent category) only to discover a non-recognition of foreign university degrees and various obstacles to employment.
Not surprisingly the results of the StatsCan 2007 study also reveal that recent immigrants with Canadian degrees fared no better and could not participate in the labour market due to a lack of significant Canadian experience. Consequently, unemployed immigrants with Canadian degrees are attending school again, “resulting in lower overall participation and employment rates in comparison to the Canadian born counterparts.” Also, new immigrant women have the lowest employment outcomes.
The redeeming news for immigrants is that after a time period of more than 10 years and a Canadian degree, there is some hope for parity in employment outcomes. Ontario and British Columbia are ahead of Quebec.
In today’s highly-competitive global economy, this under-utilization of our precious human resources is foolish. It not only undermines the economic development and fabric of our society; it is morally deplorable, unjust and corrupt in terms of the tremendous adverse economic, social and personal impact on individuals, families, communities, and the country as a whole.
Canada has been wasting huge human capital due to its racial discriminatory employment practices. It is time for the government to stop paying lip service to research results, findings of employment discrimination by courts and human rights tribunals, and become accountable. Until then, labour market inequalities will only worsen and immigrants, visible minorities in particular, will continue to bear the brunt. The need for an assertive, open-minded and non-partisan response from all political parties is vital, given the complexity and urgency of the problem and its adverse ramifications for all Canadians. The bell tolls. Is anybody listening?
Dr. Sandra Fonseca,
The People’s Forum
Ottawa, Ont.
http://www.thehilltimes.ca/html/cover_index.php?display=story&full_path=/2008/august/11/letter6/&c=1